There are a lot of options for black birds aren’t there! You could try a sound ID app like Merlin since usually the calls are pretty easy to distinguish. Rooks have lower and rougher caws than crows, and ravens are much bigger and rarer. Depending on where you live there are also jackdaws which are smaller with more high pitched calls, but also move around in crowds. In Europe, actual blackbirds are thrushes and behave and sound very differently from the corvids.
Now I am remembering a house called The Rookery I was nervous about walking past, as a child... and wondering about the difference between rooks and crows. A very enjoyable post, thank you!
Good point, the difference isn’t always obvious! They’re about the same size and coloring but rooks have a whitish bald patch around their beaks (which seem a bit longer and more prominent) and their feathers tend to be scruffier. And their rookeries are unmistakable; crows don’t gather in numbers like for nesting, as far as I know. Rooks stick together for the whole year too, I think.
Ah, that explains why I always thought the rooks near my home were saying 'Ann, Ann'! Gosh, now I will be looking out for them in my Cambridge neighbourhood.
I love this piece
Thank you! ☺️
I absolutely adore a pink feathered cloud...
Thank you, Anne! Always good to discover another rook obsessive.
Yes indeed!
Loving your diary! And how rooks are gregarious.
I have black birds around my home. I am not sure though what they are exactly.
And thank you!
There are a lot of options for black birds aren’t there! You could try a sound ID app like Merlin since usually the calls are pretty easy to distinguish. Rooks have lower and rougher caws than crows, and ravens are much bigger and rarer. Depending on where you live there are also jackdaws which are smaller with more high pitched calls, but also move around in crowds. In Europe, actual blackbirds are thrushes and behave and sound very differently from the corvids.
Now I am remembering a house called The Rookery I was nervous about walking past, as a child... and wondering about the difference between rooks and crows. A very enjoyable post, thank you!
Good point, the difference isn’t always obvious! They’re about the same size and coloring but rooks have a whitish bald patch around their beaks (which seem a bit longer and more prominent) and their feathers tend to be scruffier. And their rookeries are unmistakable; crows don’t gather in numbers like for nesting, as far as I know. Rooks stick together for the whole year too, I think.
Oh and rook calls are lower and rougher than crow calls.
Ah, that explains why I always thought the rooks near my home were saying 'Ann, Ann'! Gosh, now I will be looking out for them in my Cambridge neighbourhood.
I know there’s a rookery in the main Longstanton churchyard, though I’m sure there are others in Cambridge itself!
Thank you for sharing! I also recommend Easy By Nature as another great newsletter.
Thanks!
"I’ve become a little bit obsessed with rooks..."
A perfect hook with which to open a story.
Very glad to hear that 😄