A young Western Jackdaw, Corvus monedula, perched on a twig. Immature Jackdaws can be aged by the gape at the corners of their beaks, their pale blue rather than off-white eyes and their darker browny-grey heads rather than the silver-grey heads of adults.
Jackdaws are the smallest members of the Corvid (crow) family, and are among the most intelligent animals on earth, easily able to work out puzzles put in the way of obtaining food.
They are highly gregarious and prefer to nest and feed together. There is a small woodland behind the houses across the road from mine where there is a mixed rookery of Rooks and Jackdaws. All through winter, Jackdaws use the trees there as a ‘jumping off spot’ or ‘staging post’. In the afternoons, they fly in from other sites in small groups then as it gets darker, they do several ‘dummy runs’, making small circles around the area, calling as they fly. Then they fly away as a much larger group towards their roosting site where they will spend the night.
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