page_title: Western jackdaw
section_title: Behaviour
hierarchical_section_title: Western jackdaw / Behaviour
caption_attribution_description: English: Flying Western Jackdaw Deutsch: Dohle im Flug am Bogenberg an der Donau
context_page_description: The western jackdaw, also known as the Eurasian jackdaw, the European jackdaw, or simply the jackdaw, is a passerine bird in the crow family. Found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa; it is mostly resident, although northern and eastern populations migrate south in the winter. Four subspecies are recognised, which differ mainly in the colouration of the plumage on the head and nape. Linnaeus first described it formally, giving it the name Corvus monedula. The common name derives from the word jack, denoting "small", and daw, a less common synonym for "jackdaw", and the native English name for the bird.
  Measuring 34–39 centimetres in length, the western jackdaw is a black-plumaged bird with a grey nape and distinctive pale-grey irises. It is gregarious and vocal, living in small groups with a complex social structure in farmland, open woodland, on coastal cliffs, and in urban settings. Like its relatives, jackdaws are intelligent birds, and have been observed using tools. An omnivorous and opportunistic feeder, it eats a wide variety of plant material and invertebrates, as well as food waste from urban areas.
context_section_description: Generally wary of people in the forest or countryside, western jackdaws are much tamer in urban areas. Like magpies, they are known to show interest in shiny objects such as jewellery. John Gay, in his Beggar's Opera, notes that "A covetous fellow, like a jackdaw, steals what he was never made to enjoy, for the sake of hiding it". In Tobias Smollett's The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, a scathing character assassination runs, "He is ungracious as a hog, greedy as a vulture, and thievish as a jackdaw."
  Highly gregarious, western jackdaws are generally seen in flocks of varying sizes, though males and females pair-bond for life and pairs stay together within flocks. Flocks increase in size in autumn and birds congregate at dusk for communal roosting, with up to several thousand individuals gathering at one site. At Uppsala, Sweden, 40,000 birds have been recorded at a single winter roost with mated pairs often settling together for the night. Western jackdaws frequently congregate with hooded crows or rooks, the latter particularly when migrating or roosting. They have been recorded foraging with the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris), Northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), and common gull (Larus canus) in northwestern England. Flocks are targets of coordinated hunting by pairs of lanner falcons (Falco biarmicus), although larger groups are more able to elude the predators. Western jackdaws sometimes mob and drive off larger birds such as European magpies, common ravens, or Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus); one gives an alarm call which alerts its conspecifics to gather and attack as a group. Occasionally, a sick or injured western jackdaw is mobbed until it is killed.
  In his book King Solomon's Ring, Konrad Lorenz described and analysed the complex social interactions in a western jackdaw flock that lived around his house in Altenberg, Austria. He ringed them for identification and caged them in the winter to prevent their annual migration. He found that the birds have a linear hierarchical group structure, with higher-ranked individuals dominating lower-ranked birds, and pair-bonded birds sharing the same rank. Young males establish their individual status before pairing with females. Upon pairing, the female assumes the same social position as her partner. Unmated females are the lowest members in the pecking order, and are the last to have access to food and shelter. Lorenz noted one case in which a male, absent during the dominance struggles and pair bondings, returned to the flock, became the dominant male, and chose one of two unpaired females for a mate. This female immediately assumed a dominant position in the social hierarchy and demonstrated this by pecking others. According to Lorenz, the most significant factor in social behaviour was the immediate and intuitive grasp of the new hierarchy by each of the western jackdaws in the flock.
caption: A western jackdaw in flight.
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