Where do birds go at night? Where are they hiding when there is a storm and the weather is really bad?
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German here. I wondered about that, too. Especially last week when we had lots of wind and just … impossible weather. As I kept wondering, I looked outside and saw in the middle of a hailstorm the tail of a magpie sitting in an evergreen tree. So that answered my question.
Often in buildings, as an architect we have to be very aware that some birds can roost in eaves, and must not interrupt their seasonal nesting. As a child I remember watching the Starlings murmuration over The West Pier in Brighton. Truly beautiful and mesmerising.
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Local blackbirds are hiding under bushes and next door’s monkey puzzle tree.
Coal tits are hiding, goodness knows where, too, taking advantage of a quiet half hour to visit the feeders.
Meanwhile, resident woodpigeon is looking increasingly pissed off and fluffy and can’t work out why it’s so difficult to sit on the edge of the bird bath or walk along the fence in 50mph gusts. Idiot bird.
I may have a little helpful knowledge here.
Crows will roost overnight with a large number of other crows within a tree or multiple trees. Crows are the only birds I know for sure that do this, but I’m also sure that there are other species that roost (European Starlings come to mind, they certainly roost in large groups during the day).
In addition to sleeping, it’s likely that the crows use roosts for protection from predators and gathering information on the surrounding area, other crows, sources of food, and so on.
Not all crows will go to a roost overnight, however. Some will “stay at home” at their nest with their family unit. Crows that do go to roosts rarely go every night, and each crow is different in respect to how often they go to roosts or stay home.
I know it’s specific to crows, but I hope it was helpful or at least interesting 🙂
Source: amateur birder of several years, Cornell lab’s online course on crows, and several pieces of literature on crows
There’s a Walmart parking lot that has a ‘singing tree’ during parts of the year- like the entire tree at night is just FILLED with birds…
Can’t even imagine what it looks like under that tree.
The legend says this question is asked on the internet all the time, I never thought I’d find this question in the wild: [https://xkcd.com/1434/](https://xkcd.com/1434/)
A lot of birds find shelter to rest during night, which keeps them safe from predators while also keeping them sheltered from bad weather. These shelters can be things such as birdhouses or boxes, or trees and bushes.
Because birds are at their most vulnerable when they are asleep they have to choose carefully where they spend the night. They will tend to roost in large flocks. Sometimes birds will even find an abandoned building they can shelter in.
Most birds are diurnal, which means they’re most active during the day, especially early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Although many birds find shelter for the night there are birds such as sparrows, warblers and thrushes who avoid predators by flying at night when they migrate.
The feathers of most birds shed rain and trap air against their bodies to help keep them warm. But their feathers can’t handle heavy rain which makes them seek shelter during harder storms.
At some point all birds are called back to the closest government charging station to charge up their batteries and switch out any lenses if need be.
The first part of your question has already been answered, so I’ll try to answer the second one: Where are birds hiding when there is a storm and the weather is really bad?
Birds, like many other large vertebrates, have a place where it rests during the night or where they lay and rest during the day, since being active during the whole day is something only humans do. Even pets and other domestic animals spend a great deal of the day resting. Animals, including birds, don’t have a special place to hide during storms so they just endure them. Here’s some videos of land animals enduring the rain:
* [urban bird under pouring rain](https://youtu.be/26RgA-kU-18)
* [elephant family enjoying a casual rain](https://youtu.be/Tciu0fHjbHQ)
* [monkeys covered under a tree’s canopy during a rainstorm](https://youtu.be/eRDcV9hkDg0)
* [lions casually walking around during a storm](https://youtu.be/L1ibu6eM2c0)
Animals just get wet and deal with it. If they can find shelter somewhere else, they’ll certainly do so but most of the times they just… endure it.
If the storm is particularly bad, like a hurricane, [some researchers have found that birds go to the eye of the storm and fly around inside of it until the hurricane recedes.](https://youtu.be/DNvJ4E3mw9Q)
My mom has a bird that’s been spending the winter perched in a corner of her porch. That’s the answer for just one.
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