Tracking Bothell’s crows

Nine crows perched on the top of a building at UW Bothell.

Bothell is no stranger to crows. For many years, the UW Bothell campus has been known to house tens of thousands of crows from late summer through early spring.

In recent times, however, there seems to be less crow activity on campus; UW Bothell reported that by Jan. 2025 there was little to no evidence of continued roosting.

Douglas Wacker, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has been studying the Bothell crows since 2012. Now that the crows have relocated to Redmond, his research is turning to a less-studied question: why do crows choose to relocate their roosts?

“There’s been a lot of changes to the Bothell campus and that might have disrupted the crows,” Wacker said. “Or perhaps the roost developed in a way that was less suitable and some of them happened to move, and the others followed.”

Learn more about the crows and their move from UW Bothell in the local news stories by The Seattle Times, “Where did UW Bothell’s crows go? It’s a ‘murder’ mystery” and by The Lynnwood Times, “Bothell’s sky fills with thousands of crows each night, perplexing researchers.”