Infamous presidential denial / THU 9-21-23 / Withered, climate-wise / D-F-A is one in music / Third-most common Chinese surname in America / Competitive poker? / Classic N.Y.C. cinema name

Constructor: Dan Caprera

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: WINTER MIGRATION (40A: Seasonal phenomenon depicted six times in this puzzle) — the tail (!) ends of six answers are birds: that part of the answer turns down ... or "flies south," which is what many birds do for the "winter":

Theme answers:

• WES CRAVEN (1A: Director who said "Horror films don't create fear. They release it")
• "I AM NOT A CROOK" (37A: Infamous presidential denial)
• DICK CLARK (49A: "The $10,000 Pyramid" host)
• MOHAWK (6A: Center cut?)
• HALF INCH (9A: Length just over one centimeter)
• IN ESCROW (58A: How some money is held)

Word of the Day: ROOK (39D: Corner piece) —

The rook (Corvus frugilegus) is a member of the family Corvidae in the passerine order of birds. It is found in the Palearctic, its range extending from Scandinavia and western Europe to eastern Siberia. It is a large, gregarious, black-feathered bird, distinguished from similar species by the whitish featherless area on the face. Rooks nest collectively in the tops of tall trees, often close to farms or villages, the groups of nests being known as rookeries.

Rooks are mainly resident birds, but the northernmost populations may migrate southwards to avoid the harshest winter conditions. The birds form flocks in winter, often in the company of other Corvus species or jackdaws. They return to their rookeries and breeding takes place in spring. They forage on arable land and pasture, probing the ground with their strong bills and feeding largely on grubs and soil-based invertebrates, but also consuming cereals and other plant material. Historically, farmers have accused the birds of damaging their crops, and have made efforts to drive them away or kill them. Like other corvids, they are intelligent birds with complex behavioural traits and an ability to solve simple problems. (wikipedia)

I like birds. I never used to notice them, then I married someone New Zealand who knew a thing or two about birds, then time passed, then the pandemic hit, and *then* I really started paying attention to the absolute Wild Kingdom that is my neighborhood. Now I'm that guy with his Merlin app open, standing on the sidewalk, wandering into the street, staring at the trees, trying to identify and see whatever bird is making that noise. Merlin (a bird sound ID app) said there was something on my block yesterday called a "brown-headed cowbird," what the hell? It's like a space alien was visiting. I didn't see it, but there's still time. Maybe. Anyway, birds, man. They're great. My main thought about this puzzle was "Whoa, so many corvids!" My first two birds were RAVEN and ROOK and I really thought we were gonna get some kind of spooky Halloweenesque black bird / murder of crows / quoth the raven-type of puzzle. And a CROW actually does show up eventually! But then a dang LARK comes along and ruins the party, but it's fine. And that's my feeling about the theme here: it's fine. It's an odd assortment of birds. Would've been cool if they'd all been migratory, particularly south-flying, but they're not. I mean, some crows migrate, but many don't, and anyway they don't "fly south for the winter." Finches, also, not terribly migratory. Again, the only thing that's important for the theme is that you've got bird names, and that those bird names"fly south," i.e. turn down. I like that those bird names were clued in non-bird ways, and so you had to figure out they were also the tail ends of Acrosses. I found this out very early, when the only horror directors I could think of off the top of my head were Hitchcock, Eli Roth, and WES CRAVEN. None of them fit ... until one of them did.