Falconer swoops in to help with Portland’s crow problem

PORTLAND, Ore. (InvestigateTV) - Portland is facing a rising tide of crows. While birds have their charm, their droppings are a dirty dilemma. Now, a special team is swooping in and taking flight with a clever solution.

During the winter months, every night in Portland, about 23,000 crows settle into the city - and it’s Guy the hawk’s job to scare them out.

“Guy is a 9-month-old Harris hawk,” said master falconer Kort Clayton. “So he carries a little GPS transmitter; it’s great insurance.”

Guy seems sweet, but just his presence causes alarm for other feathered friends.

“They’re not happy he’s here,” Clayton said. “This is probably the windiest day he’s ever experienced in his three-month flying career. So landing in the trees is new for him.”

But Guy always knows how to find Clayton.

“Falconry is a 4,000-year-old sport,” said Clayton. “We usually start around dark, that’s when the crows come in.”

As night falls, crows congregate in massive numbers to roost, seeking warmth and safety in numbers. And more and more frequently, they’re choosing cities as their nightly haven.

“There’s a team of us, three or four of us, and we’re down here. We walk around, we each have a hawk, we spread out in different areas, and basically, let the hawks loose; they follow us, and wherever we go, the crows go the other direction,” said Clayton.

Hawks are hunters, and the crows know that. What they don’t know is that these birds of prey aren’t on a hunt. They’re trained to fly, hang out, and then return to their falconer for a well-deserved treat.

“Early on when we acquire them, it’s a habituation process because they’re scared of humans. You get over that - they start to trust you, they understand you’re a food sources, and that’s really it. He just follows me around for food.”

Focusing on a 72-block radius, the hawks push crows and what they leave behind out of the downtown core, away from businesses stuck with clean-up costs.

Learn more about Clayton and Integrated Avian Solutions by clicking here.