UKC

From my morning walk. Apologies for quality - Galaxy 7 phone

Is this handsome dude a carrion crow? I think it is.

Yet I see these in large flocks in the park and must bird sites say carrion crows do not usually flock.

Could the flocks in your park be Jackdaws? Similar at a distance.

Crows will flock during roosting and feeding.

It's a crow. 

The photo looks more like a crow or a rook than a jackdaw. Jackdaws have quite distinctive grey hoods and blue eyes. 

The photo is a bit blurry so it's hard to tell if this is a crow or a rook. Rooks have a bald patch behind the beak which crows don't have. They also generally look scruffier, especially around the tops of the legs, but that's harder to use as an identifying feature unless you see them side by side. If I had to put money on it, I would guess this is a crow.

It is true that crows don't usually flock (although they will under some circumstances), whereas jackdaws form quite impressive flocks. We have lots of them round here and they flock in their hundreds every dusk and dawn. The photo is from a small-ish flock on our neighbour's house at dawn.  On mornings when they pick our house, it's incredibly noisy! They do look very similar to crows when you are too far away to see the hood. I would guess the flocks you see in the park are probably jackdaws.  

You also sometimes see one or two crows in with a flock of jackdaws.

100% pure Carrion Crow.  Clever birds.

Nope: not jackdaws. I know what they look like and my eyesight isn't that bad! The flocks come very close to me as I am a regular bird feeder so have them nearly at my feet and the more bold will fly right by me as if to say 'come on, fed me'. I find the colouring and size differences between crows & jackdaws easy to tell, and I also get jackdaws feeding so see them side by side frequently.

My main alternative contender was a juvenile rook, which do form large flocks.

Definitely a carrion crow. Rooks have a longer thinner beak. Carrion crows are generally more solitary, but they do flock. 

From a QA on RSPB website (https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/ask-an-...):

"Crow flocks gather nationwide during the winter months. Look near open farmland and grassland, especially pastures where invertebrate populations are highest. Generally, numbers will peak around Christmas time with the birds returning to their breeding areas around February"

Also: "Outside the breeding season, daytime flocks form from early afternoon."

And, a note that crows often form part of multi-species flocks comprising large number of jackdaws and rooks and smaller numbers of crows (this reflects what I see locally).

This year on farmland in Fife, several times I've seen jackdaws and pigeons flocking together. I've never seen this before, seems very unusual. 

Oh, interesting.  The various corvids that come to my garden (jackdaws, crows, rooks and magpies) gang up and harass the pigeons. Rock doves and feral pigeons are usually driven off. The bigger wood pigeons just take it.

Not another Corvid thread

The nineteenth?

Yes exactly. These were jackdaws and I think wood pigeons. Sitting feeding together, rising up and flying around together, landing again together, no wrankle. 

The beginning of Hitchcock's The Birds coming true???

Actually I think it's the badb so be careful.

Another one, from this morning 

We found a young carrion crow at deaths door in April, watched it for a good while to see if mother would come for it but with the flies swarming and cats prowling we made the difficult decision to pick it up, I gave it hours to live. Hand fed it, cleaned it up and within a few weeks it was up and about. We released it in our garden and for many weeks it came back, shouted at us and demanded to be fed. Enchanting birds that I had never really taken much notice of before, lots of them around where we live. Kenneth (named after Kenneth Williams, Carry On) seems to have left the Manor along with the family of crows that roost in the trees of our garden, perhaps he (gender assumed.... I know... I know) will return in spring to chase the cats, hide stolen items around the garden and generally demonstrate corvid thuggery around the patch. 

'Crow country' by Mark Cocker is an interesting read about the mutual behaviour of Rooks & Jackdaws.

Watched two Ravens this morning, honking away. And loads of pink footed geese, again. 4 skeins if over 100 each. Lashing by down now - been a miserable autumn so far. 

Ha ha Id put a like for this and 'the nineteenth?' but Ive disabled them.

Anyway definitly a carrion crow - rooks have narrower whitish beaks and jackdaws smaller with grey patch on back of neck

In reply to:

Jackdaws really are cheeky little buggers, I can remember one sidling along a branch at Symonds Yat to give one of the resident peregrines a peck!

One got into my greenhouse last year.  Unlike most birds, which would either panic or just sit quietly in the corner, it amused itself by systematically pulling up all my seedlings!

This is a carryon crow - perfect size for handluggage

That's a raven.

I once got a load of Nottingham twitchers excited reporting the spotting  of a Ring Ouzel by the Trent. 
 

turned out it was a blackbird with a white patch on it. 

Yes, but you wouldn’t be allowed onto the plane if you had corvid.....