Thousands of crows flock to Burnaby every day. Witness their spectacular journey

Every day, just before sundown, crows from all corners of Greater Vancouver embark on a journey to their roosting spot, convergingon a quiet street in Burnaby.

Still Creek near Willingdon Avenue and Highway 1, an ordinary locale, transforms into a bustling metropolis of corvids in the evening, reaching staggering numbers up to 10,000 during the winter months.

Filmmakers Jack Bailey and Liron Gertsman capture this daily crow migration with their latest film,The Commute, on CBC's Creator Network.

Nature photographer Gertsman, who holds a degree in biology from University of British Columbia, said the ubiquitous presence of crows in the Lower Mainland made them a captivating subject for the film.

"You don't have to hike any mountains or lap around parks to see them. You see them everywhere," he said in an interview with CBC's On The Coast.

Utilizing fast-cut scenes, zooms, and match shots, The Commute draws intriguing parallels between the daily hustle and bustle of human commuters and the flight patterns of thousands of crows.

"They are quite similar to people. They leave their roosting area at dawn and return back every night," said Gertsman.

But there are also interesting contrasts, notes Bailey.

WATCH | Short doc shows thousands of crows flocking to Burnaby:

On The Coast7:54A new CBC Creator Network film features the journey thousands of crows make each day out to Burnaby

Jack Bailey and Liron Gertsman speak with Amy Bell about their film and why they love the birds so much.

"We come together during the day, work and then leave for home and go our separate ways," he said. "But the crows, they are even more social, they congregate and roost together."

The film follows flocks of crows from all over the Lower Mainland from downtown Vancouver to Coquitlam, Port Moody, Richmond andSurrey as they fly in unison to their final roosting destination.

Still Creek has long been a roosting area for these birds.

Local ornithologist Rob Butler says they've been congregating there since the 1970s.

According to Butler, it's not known why the Still Creek area has been the go-to roosting hub for Lower Mainland's crows but he believes it has to do with safety the area provides.

"They seek safety from nocturnal predators,which are aplenty in other areas but not in Still Creek," he said.

"Crows are social and endlessly fascinating. Because they live close by, crows are one of the few regular connections urbanites have with wild animals," added Butler. "By watching crows people get interested in nature, and that's a good thing."

Gertsman and Bailey said they also became interested in crows by observing them.

"We spent a lot of time watching them, trying to predict their moves, where they will be next," said Gertsman.

The film's production involved eight days of shooting, with the majority of the effort invested in three weeks of planning and an additional month of editing, according to Bailey.

Eschewing traditional narrative techniques, the short documentary relies solely on visuals and sounds to capture the essence of the crow migration.