Rook bird Wikipedia

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.

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…

But Rooks also form life-long partnerships, called pairbonds. Rook pairs spend a lot of time close together, feeding one another, displaying and vocalising together and preening. They also act at the same time, one copying the other’s movements. We wanted to know if Rooks were interacting in pairs and groups, and whether they were aggressive to each other.

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.

Thanks to Clayton’s own eclectic tastes, which span consciousness to choreography (her other love, besides birds, is dance), the lab also engenders a curious synthesis of ideas drawn from both science and the arts. The rook (Corvus frugilegus) is a member of the family Corvidae in the passerine order of birds. It is found in the Palearctic, its range extending from Scandinavia and western Europe to eastern Siberia. It is a large, gregarious, black-feathered bird, distinguished from similar species by the whitish featherless area on the face. Rooks nest collectively in the tops of tall trees, often close to farms or villages, the groups of nests being known as rookeries.

Crows, rooks and ravens are all part of the crow family and can be tricky to identify. Further investigation, however, revealed that the rooks may not have as sophisticated an understanding of the task as apes seem to have. Previous research has shown that once a chimp learns it needs a partner to move the platform, it will no longer attempt the task if it is alone.

An open letter signed by 358 academics from around the world has called on the university to reconsider. One signatory, Alex Thornton, a professor of cognitive evolution at Exeter University, said it would represent an act of “scientific vandalism and monumental self-sabotage”. Emery told me that creating something similar somewhere else would be pretty difficult, “if not impossible”, and incredibly expensive. “These birds cannot be purchased ‘off the shelf’,” he said. “If Nicky’s corvid lab closes down, then it couldn’t really start up again.” As the letter states, the lab at Madingley is the only one of its kind in the UK, and remains “globally unique in its size and capability”. “Magic reveals a lot about the blind spots we have,” says Clayton, and lately magic has opened up a new line of inquiry for the lab.

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.

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).

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.

They are slightly smaller than crows, with a typical wingspan of 90cm. The species’ key identifying feature is the grey-white skin at the base of its long, pointed beak. This distinguishes it from the similar-looking carrion crow, which has an all-black beak. Chimpanzees, and possibly a few other primates, are the only other species that have proved themselves capable of the same task. Rooks are extremely social birds, living in colonies of hundreds of members, and are likely to have faced evolutionary pressure to learn to cooperate, Seed says. As news that the lab faces closure has rippled through the scientific community, the reaction has been of sadness and dismay.

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 Types of animal diets 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.

What makes them different from other species of bird is that they can imagine the future and plan for it. They have self-control, too, and can think what they will benefit from later, compared with right now. It is common corvid behaviour to cache food, and one species, the California scrub jay, can act deceptively if another bird is watching it bury food and pretend to move its cache to a new place.

It comes back after 20 minutes or so to retrieve and eat it, once soft. I am sure the rook described in the question – a fellow corvid – is doing a similar thing. No doubt the moisture in the earth softens the bread too. Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.

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 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, 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.