Pittsurgh Post-Gazette | Author David Templeton | Photo by Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette | February 15, 2018

On most winter nights, 30,000 to 40,000 crows fill Hill District trees overlooking Bigelow Boulevard. It’s a loud, dramatic spectacle that obviously brings to mind Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 movie, “The Birds.”

The daily crow-roosting in winter months occurs at three sites in the region, and possibly others, including in the Hill District; from Bridgeport to Martins Ferry, Ohio, near Wheeling Island, W.Va.; and near California University of Pennsylvania along the Monongahela River, Washington County.

But it’s nature not horror — something to behold not fear — said Kevin J. McGowan, an ornithologist with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. And let’s be clear: Those bad guys in “The Birds” were seagulls.

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