The Jackdaw is a small bird with black plumage that has a metallic sheen. Only her head and chest are ash gray. In its appearance, it is very similar to a crow, but its dimensions are noticeably smaller: the body is about 30 centimeters long, and the weight is rarely more than 250 grams. In adult birds, the eyes are light, sometimes blue, juveniles are dark-eyed. Beak and legs are black.
Jackdaw is a sociable bird, from early spring to late autumn they fly together with rooks. Together following the tractors during the spring plowing, the birds look for earthworms, insects and their larvae in the ground. In the summer, uniting with rooks and starlings, jackdaws fly to mowed meadows and harvested fields in search of food.
In autumn, after the departure of the rooks, they join the gray crows, spending the night together on trees in courtyards and city parks. In the morning they fly out of town to landfills or fields, where they feed. In winter, waste from garbage dumps plays an important role in their nutrition, and sometimes helps to survive.
How to tell by the trail
The jackdaw leaves a trail that looks like a crow, butnoticeably smaller. By size
paw prints they are more likely to be confused with magpie tracks. But the magpie mainly jumps, and the jackdaw springily paces, while focusing on the fingers. Therefore, the average plantar callus is not always well printed on the tracks.
The toes on her paws are somewhat thick, with shorter claws. This affects the length of the print, which is shorter than that of a magpie. The stride is about 15 centimeters long and the trail is almost 5 centimeters wide.
Features of behavior
The Jackdaw is a bird that does not destroy other people's nests, unlike their crow friends. Destroying a large number of insect pests, these representatives of the bird world bring significant benefits to people. In some cases, in search of food, they can cause significant damage to vegetable gardens and melons. But this is not out of harm, just want to eat.
The main places of distribution are cities and large towns. They live less frequently on rocky coasts, and are also rarely found in forests. Jackdaw is a bird that nests near human dwellings: under the eaves of houses, in attics, in chimneys, in the voids of buildings. Sometimes she makes her nest in the hollow of an old tree.
Nesting
They live in separate pairs or small flocks. Often create joint colonies with rooks. They start building nests later than their neighbors, in the first decade of April. The dwelling is erected in pairs, first carrying dry twigs, and then rags and paper to line the tray.
Jackdaw is a bird that lays eggs in the first half of May. There can be from 3 to 7 pieces in the nest. The eggs may be bluish-green or light blue in color, with greenish-brown spots. Incubation lasts 18 days. Newly hatched chicks stay in the nest for another month.
Daw is a migratory bird?
They live in Europe, Asia, North Africa. Birds nesting in the northern regions of Eurasia are migratory; in October they fly south, winter in China, and return in February. In Europe, in the Caucasus, in Central Asia, the jackdaw lives settled. But in winter, sometimes in these places, birds move within the nesting area.
