Jackdaw

Corvus monedula

Jackdaw

(Jackdaws are members of the crow family, the corvidae, which in Britain includes - Ravens, Magpies, Jays, Chough, Carrion Crows and Hooded Crows).

If you are in Aberfeldy at dusk during the winter months you can see vast flocks of jackdaws and rooks. They fly in thousands over the town as they make their way to roosts. Rooks and Jackdaws often forage in mixed flocks. The advantages of massive roosts include - many eyes to spot predators, large numbers to confuse predators when they try to attack and many eyes to help find food and lead the flocks to that food (network foraging). Roosts are traditional and sites may be used for centuries. Ravens also have very large roosts.

The jackdaws are more vocal than rooks and have almost musical higher pitched calls. Jackdaws have black plumage except for a grey nape (back of the head). Jackdaws, like most members of the crow family are very intelligent and are adept fliers which seem to enjoy playing in the wind. Their eyes are very unusual as they are a very pale penetrating colour. You can encounter Jackdaws closeup at the car park at House of Bruar and there you may be able to see their pale eyes. Jackdaws pair for life and are truly monogamous. They don’t breed until they are two years old and then it is the female who incubates the eggs whilst the male does all the collection of food - feeding both the chicks and the female.

Jackdaws will cash food for later and if being watched by other birds will pretend to hide the food to fool the observer and then hide it somewhere else. Jackdaws can recognise human faces and will even warn others about the approach of an individual who is deemed to be threatening.

Residents of Kinloch Rannoch have noticed an increase in the numbers of jackdaws, possibly because they are no longer shot in the area. Curiously, however, there are no rooks even though rooks are common over the hill at Coshieville and along to Aberfeldy. Jackdaws are very versatile and will take food from bird tables as well as taking invertebrates from arable fields. Like magpies they have an attraction to bright shiny objects. They nest in hole sites in rocks or dense trees and are well known as a nuisance when they choose to nest in chimneys.

King Solomon's Ring is a landmark book on animal behaviour by Konrad Lorenz who is recognised as the ‘Father of Ethology’ (Study of Animal Behaviour). Nobel prize winner, Lorenz studied the Jackdaws in his home village of Altenberg in Austria.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Solomon%27s_Ring_(book)

(15th December 2019)

Creative Commons - credit nottsexminer