are the birds in these photos and video rooks? NL (1 Viewer)

[ndonri]

Hi,

starting back in february or march there were very noisy birds in several trees across the street. i took these photos in march. judging from the shape of the beak and the communal nests (there were around 8 nests in one tree and even more in another tree out of view on the next block) i think these are rooks?

fast forward to last wednesday morning around 5:30 in the morning, there were dozens (maybe more) similar looking birds flying over. i made this short video. i missed the first batch of birds flying over but you can hear lots of them towards the end of the video. here's the link to the video in dropbox, it was too large to upload here. Dropbox

i wasn't sure if the birds in the video were rooks as well? a friend thought they might be jackdaws. but ever since last wednesday morning when i took the video, i haven't heard or seen the rooks in their nests across the street. they had been annoying me every day, at all hours of day and night because they're so noisy.

would rooks leave the nests (rookery?) all at once like that?

 

[Butty]

1. Yes. (Jackdaws don't make or use open nests in trees.)
2. The calls are all jackdaws - 'jak jak', etc. The flying birds look OK for jackdaw too (fast wing-beats).
3. Could be - and if they did, they did - unless it was jackdaws hanging around in the trees by that stage. The typical calls of rook and jackdaw are markedly different.

 

[Southern Viking]

i wasn't sure if the birds in the video were rooks as well? a friend thought they might be jackdaws. but ever since last wednesday morning when i took the video, i haven't heard or seen the rooks in their nests across the street. they had been annoying me every day, at all hours of day and night because they're so noisy.

would rooks leave the nests (rookery?) all at once like that?

They won't have gone far to begin with, but yes, they tend to fledge at similar times and seem to abandon the rookery itself fairly quickly at that point. Always the same in local ones to me, and family groups can often be found feeding in nearby fields after that

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

For my benefit, what does the abbreviation NL mean?

I know it's not Newfoundland and Labrador or Nuevo Leon .

 

[nartreb]

For my benefit, what does the abbreviation NL mean?

I know it's not Newfoundland and Labrador or Nuevo Leon .

Look at ndonri's profile to see where he/she lives

 

[ndonri]

southern viking, sorry if my country abbreviation was so confusing. for clarification NL = netherlands.

 

[Southern Viking]

southern viking, sorry if my country abbreviation was so confusing. for clarification NL = netherlands.

Wasn't me that found it confusing. I've been to NL enough times to be familiar with it!

 

[ndonri]

@Southern Viking my bad. sorry. i meant @Jeff Hopkins. not sure why your name got there. i thought i had hit reply with quote which didn't seem to work either.

 

[Garrulous Jay]

For my benefit, what does the abbreviation NL mean?

I know it's not Newfoundland and Labrador or Nuevo Leon .

Nederlands (Netherlands) or Holland

 

[Garrulous Jay]

Rooks are the only European crows that nest colonially in the tops of trees (typically leafless as they always seem to choose deciduous trees and they nest very early before the leaves have opened). Also they are the only crows with white bills.

 

[LOC04]

Not really sure!!!

 

[ndonri]

Rooks are the only European crows that nest colonially in the tops of trees (typically leafless as they always seem to choose deciduous trees and they nest very early before the leaves have opened). Also they are the only crows with white bills.

thanks. i didn't know about rooks having white bills. i just looked at some photos of rooks. i see the bill looks very similar to the bill of the birds in the second photo in the OP where i have it cropped closer. the bills seem to match rooks with white and a little bit of black on the tip.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Look at ndonri's profile to see where he/she lives

Hadn't thought of that! D'Oh!