Jackdaw (Eurasian)

Field guide to the most commonly encountered mammals and birds

Here, we provide some basic information regarding commonly observed species (plus some others about which we have had queries).

Feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions regarding species you have encountered on the site.

For more information about mammals, we recommend the Mammal Society's species hub, here. For birds, excellent resources are available from the RSPB (here) and the BTO (here).

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(C) Mike Hazzledine (shared under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)

Scientific Name: Corvus monedula

Appearance: Markedly smaller than carrion crow or rook. Plumage dark, sooty-grey. Face, throat and crown black. Sides of head, neck and nape pale grey. Wings black with bluish gloss, also appearing dark purplish and green. Iris light grey or white. Short, thick bill. Sexes alike.

Song: Many calls based on short, sharp yapping sound kyak!, often produced in flight, or a more rolling churr or chee-ar. Noisy when in flocks.

When heard: Resident. Calls described above produced year-round.

Example: