When did birds start hanging around the shoulder of the road? Why do they do it? Is it an inherited trait, an evolutionary adaptation, an advantage?
Monday I drove a 180 km stretch of Northern Ontario highway. I hadn't gone a kilometre when I saw a group of crows, 3 in all at the side of the highway. Nothing new, we've all seen birds on road shoulders before but this time I decided to count the number of crows I saw on this trip. All in all I counted 67, from single individuals to as many as 4 at one time. Never saw any road kill at any of these locations.
I have seen seen crows near dead animals before but since there wasn't any this time I'm thinking the birds are there for another reason, perhaps to pick off bugs that deflect off highway traffic, I'm not sure. Still road shoulders aren't only a crow's favorite, I've seen plenty of other bird species doing the same time thing. They seem to have adapted to vehicular traffic and by my own experience, it's a rare moment if one ever hits a bird with their cars/trucks in these situations. Found this on Google...
A carrion feeder attempting to forage on a road benefits greatly from an appropriate response to vehicular traffic. in thisobservational study, we tested the ability of American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) to judge the behaviour of fast-movingvehicles and avoid collision on a narrow road. unsurprisingly, American Crows feeding in the same lane as the approachingvehicle always flew off, but interestingly, a significant proportion of American Crows in the opposite lane chose to remain onthe road. in addition, 21% of the American Crows in the same lane as the approaching vehicle walked over to the oppositelane to avoid injury, but none of the American Crows in the opposite lane walked over to the lane in which the vehicle wasapproaching. these are among the first quantitative data indicating that a non-human animal can detect the directionality ofoncoming vehicles on a road and, like humans, actively move out of the way or switch lanes to avoid death based on anunderstanding of the bahaviour of vehicular traffic.
Doesnt say why they do it unless it's strictly for road kill dining. Would that be the consensus?