Overview
- Ravenna’s council has started a drone census to count the flock and says results due next week will guide any relocation, adoption or coexistence plan.
- Rough counts put the colony at about 100 to 150 birds, and the spring mating calls that reports describe as chainsaw loud have brought sleepless nights.
- Residents report scratched cars, blocked roads and slick sidewalks from droppings, while some shops and visitors treat the birds as a local draw.
- After a 2022 relocation plan collapsed over animal-welfare objections, new offers to take birds have surfaced, including a nearby zoo that will accept 20 if the city microchips and transports them.
- Locals and officials cite easy food, feeding during the 2020 lockdowns and a lack of urban predators as drivers of the boom in a species tied to Ravenna’s mosaics and protected from hunting.