Page 364 - Complete Birds of Britain and Europe (DK - RSPB)

CROWS/STARLINGS
Family Corvidae
CROWS

HERE IS CONSIDERABLE VARIATION in MAGPIE
Tthe crow family within Europe.The Jay A highly social bird, the
Magpie has increased in
is colourful and strongly-patterned. Like most suburban areas, where
crows, it is heavily persecuted and very shy, but ornamental shrubberies
where unmolested it becomes much bolder.The and parks provide ideal
Siberian Jay has quite different colours: it is habitat. It is immediately
distinctive.
a bird of far northern forests.
Magpies are striking, long-tailed, pied birds.
They are generally disliked because of their
liking for small birds’ eggs and chicks.They are,
nevertheless, fascinating and handsome.
The Alpine Chough is a high-altitude species,
coming lower in winter, and often mixing with
the Chough, itself a social bird where common.
Choughs are also found on coastal cliffs in north-
west Europe.
The world’s largest crow is the Raven.The
all-black Carrion Crow is widely spread
but replaced in parts of Europe
by the grey-and-black
Hooded Crow.

RAUCOUS CALLS
The loud, rough, cawing calls
of Rooks fit in well with a rural
setting, above the treetops of
a country churchyard or park.

Family Sturnidae
STARLINGS

WO SPECIES ARE MOSTLY dark, shiny,
Tquarrelsome birds;the third is paler when
juvenile and pink and black when adult.
All the starlings are rather squat, sharp-
billed, short-tailed birds that walk and run in
a quick, shuffling fashion and fly quickly,
often in dense flocks. Starlings also gather to
roost in woods, reedbeds, and on structures
such as piers and bridges, in gigantic flocks,
HIGHLY SOCIAL
Starlings are much more ready to rub although numbers have recently declined
shoulders than most birds. dramatically in many areas.

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