“I think it’s kind of freaky. It’s kind of like an Alfred Hitchcock movie.” Thousands of birds take over downtown Rochester every night.

In the movie Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds, thousands of seagulls took over a small town killing people and destroying property. But this isn’t a movie – it’s downtown Rochester at dusk with thousands of birds congregating in trees and on buildings.

“The crows are attracted to an area that has large trees that they can roost in that also has some ambient lighting that lights up the sky so that they avoid predators easier.” Michael Wasilco is the regional wildlife manager for the state Department of Environmental Conservation. He says this is a winter urban crow roost. There could be as many as 30,000 crows here. They came to Rochester for warmer temperatures.