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The Rook (Corvus frugilegus) is a member of the Passerine order of birds and the crow family. A group of rooks is collectively referred to as a parliament.
This species is similar in size (45–47 cm in length) or slightly smaller than the Carrion Crow with black feathers often showing a blue or bluish-purple sheen in bright sunlight. The feathers on the head, neck and shoulders (mantle) are particularly dense and silky. They are distinguished from similar members of the family by the bare grey-white skin around the base of the adult's bill in front of the eyes. The feathering around the legs also look "shaggier" and laxer than the conspecific Carrion Crow. The juvenile is superficially more similar to that Crow but loses these facial feathers after about six months. Legs and feet are black, the bill grey-black.
Though resident in Great Britain and much of north and central Europe, vagrant to Iceland and northern Scandinavia, it also occours as an eastern race in Asia where it differs in being very slightly smaller on average and having a somewhat more fully feathered "face". In the north of its range the species has a tendency to move south during Autumn though more southern populations are apt to range sporadically also. The bird has been introduced to New Zealand though it is very localised.
Food is predominantly earthworms and insect larvae and cultivated cereal grain that the bird probes the ground for with its strong bill. Smaller amounts of fruit are taken including eggs of ground nesting birds and small mammals such as Voles where opportunity arises. Acorns are readily taken in autumn and are frequently stored by burying in the ground well away from the tree. In urban sites, human food scraps are taken from rubbish dumps and town streets, usually in the early hours while relatively quiet. It has also been seen feeding along the seashore feeding on insects, crustaceans and suitable food flotsam.
Nesting is always colonial, usually in the very tops of the trees. Branches and twigs are broken off trees (never usually picked up off the ground) though as many are likely to be stolen from nearby nests as actually collected! Eggs are usually 3–5 in number and can appear by the end of February or early March and are incubated for between 16–18 days. Both adults feed the young which are fledged by the 32nd or 33rd day.
In Autumn, the young birds of the Summer collect together with unpaired birds of previous seasons into large flocks. It is during the Autumn that spectacular arial displays can be seen by adult birds that seem to delight in the Autumn gales.
The voice though similar to the Carrion Crow is usually described as a "kaah-kaah-kaah" while the bird fans its tail and bows on each caw. Solitary birds often "sing" apparently to themselves uttering strange clicks, wheezes and almost human sounding notes.
Sound link
Rooks calling (http://www.scricciolo.com/eurosongs/Corvus.frugilegus.wav)
Like many other members of the Corvidae family, the rook features prominently in folklore. Rooks are believed to be able to forecast weather and to sense the approach of death. If a rookery — the colonial nesting area of rooks — were to be abandoned, that would bring bad fortune for the family that owned the land. Another folktale holds that rooks are responsible for escorting the souls of the virtuous dead to heaven. William Butler Yeats may be making reference to the latter tale in his poem The Cold Heaven.
Image links
- Excellent rear 3¼ view (http://www.uk400clubonline.co.uk/DiaryMay2003/069.jpg)
- Rook in field (http://www.getteron.com/images/birds/2003/Juli-03/raka1.jpg)
- Rook in profile (http://website.lineone.net/~ssleightholm/dict/glossary/rook.jpg)
- Skull of Rook (http://www.skullsite.com/images/dbimages/large/corvusfrugilegus_s.jpg)
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