Bird Skull - Scotland (1 Viewer)

[Gander]

This will possibly be one of the strangest bird ID requests ever posted on the forum, but here goes!

I have a friend who lives near Inverness. My friend has just taken up metal detecting, so was recently out with his new detector looking for buried treasure in a local field. He had been advised to pay special attention around old trees, as they historically have been used as markers by anyone hiding away their goodies. While checking out a particularly tall tree, my friend picked up a signal for buried metal. He proceeded to excavate, and found an old, rusty Cadbury's Chocolate Fingers tin. He was quite excited at this point, but that only lasted until he opened the tin. No treasure just the skeleton of a mystery bird.

I am thinking crow, but it may not be a native species if it was someone's pet. Any thoughts?

P.S - Tin and skeleton have been reburied.

 

[Butty]

Jackdaw?

 

[THE_FERN]

Jackdaw?

Good suggestion but I think the upper mandible is more curved in that species. From this:

Four different corvid skulls

looks like magpie I suggest

 

[dantheman]

Definitely not a penguin? ;-)

If a corvid then perhaps a pet, or buried by a child or someone perhaps. Presumably nothing macabre/witchy going on as there would have been other things in the tin ... ?

 

[davewalters]

Can't help with the skull but as an ex serious metal detectorist I can state that lone trees in or around fields draw some detectorists for a quick slash and I have seen many of them empty their pouches (fnerrrr!) there of all the rubbish they've found, At best your friend, by targeting such areas, may find a coke can with some wee in it.