Crow-plagued California city turns to lasers and boomboxes to clear the air

More than a thousand crows roost in Sunnyvale every night, ruffling locals' feathers with caws and droppings

Each night, more than a thousand crows descend on Sunnyvale, California. In recent years a growing contingency of corvids have been roosting in the Silicon Valley town's downtown district, filling the night air with a chorus of caws and painting the roads, Pollock-esque, with droppings.

The spectacle has failed to charm residents and local business owners. Vice-Mayor Alysa Cisneros said constituents had been complaining about the crows since she began campaigning for office in 2019. In terms of the kinds of complaints I get on a consistent basis, crows are a top concern, right after speeding drivers," she said.