Rook Corvus frugilegus British Birds

Every day, around 10.30 am, rooks would start to assemble on the roof above the kitchen. Then, as the coffee service finished, the servers would toss the unsold toast out of the window. Almost every day, an Australian raven drops a hard crust of bread in our birdbath.

Nests are built high in the trees and made of twigs and branches. These are broken off trees or stolen from a nearby nest. Some rookeries can contain thousands of birds, with their noisy calls making them easy to discover. Worms, beetles and other invertebrates are the rook’s main food, which it catches by probing the ground with its large beak. It will also feed on grain, fruit, acorns and occasionally carrion and birds’ eggs. Rooks have all-black plumage, but an iridescent sheen is notable when seen up close.

Rooks like to play with different objects, including sticks and stones. Although they don’t use sticks as tools, they do play with them, as well as use them to build nests. We asked if Rooks were using objects, especially in unusual ways. Many years ago, at work, we had a mobile service with coffee and toast for sale. My ground-floor office looked out onto a grassy area, and the kitchen was opposite.

Birds that had not previously stolen food for themselves remained blissfully ignorant. It seemed that jays could not only relate to a previous experience, but put themselves in the eyes of another bird and make decisions based on the possibility of future events. The results of the study were published in Nature in 2001. As large, noisy and social birds, rooks are easy to spot. Look for groups of black birds feeding in open fields and along roadsides.

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. Watching alongside me is Professor Nicola Clayton, a psychologist who founded the lab 22 years ago, and we are joined by Francesca Cornero, 25, a PhD researcher (and occasional cups and balls technician).

Soak up the wonder of wetlands at this sweeping riverbank reserve where wildfowl and wading birds flock to feed, rest and nest. Even as we reach the beginning of November, autumn migration is still very evident. Birds continue to arrive in the UK from more northerly regions to spend the next few months here in our warmer winters, before…

In winter, keep your eyes peeled for flocks flying above woodland as they come in to roost. Scientists at the University of Cambridge tested the rooks, which are Eurasian members of the crow family, by placing dishes of food on a platform out of reach of a bird enclosure. A single string looped from the enclosure to the platform and back again. Moving the platform closer required pulling on both ends of the string simultaneously, a feat that is only possible if two birds work together, each tugging on one end.

They are good at problem-solving and memory puzzles and they can even use tools. Referring to animal species that have been transported to and established populations in regions outside of their natural range, Check this for Doeat.top Herbivorous animals usually through human action. Rooks are highly social, living and interacting in large groups, although mating tends to monogamous. This bird species is largely arboreal and actively defends its territory.

Rook, (Corvus frugilegus), the most abundant Eurasian bird of the crow family Corvidae (q.v.). It resembles the carrion crow in size (45 cm [18 inches]) and in black coloration, but the adult rook usually has shaggy thigh feathers and has bare white skin at the base of its sharp bill. The species ranges discontinuously from England to Iran and Manchuria and is migratory. Rooks nest in large colonies (rookeries) in tall trees, sometimes within towns.

Their nests are solidly constructed of twigs and soil and are used year after year. The birds lay three to five light greenish, heavily speckled eggs, and the young are able to fly about a month after birth. Rooks dig for larvae and worms in meadows and plowed fields and may pull up grain seedlings and young potato plants. 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.