Jackdaws will eat just about anything they can lay their beaks on.

To see the huge population in Richmond park taking off en-masse and flying in noisy swirling flocks is fascinating enough but to watch their eating habits is even more absorbing and frankly amusing.

Sitting outside the cafe in Richmond park we are always accompanied by very tame jackdaws perched close by on adjacent tables, on the ground or above in carpark trees.

They watch us intently with piercing black-pupilled grey eyes awaiting a crumb or two to drop. Every time a table is vacated the cheeky birds will swoop down and forage for left over pieces of cake or similar and even pick up unwrapped paper sachets of sugar and eat the contents.

Recently in the carpark I watched a very scruffy almost piebald juvenile jackdaw (pictured) patiently prise open a plastic container of curry and obviously enjoy the discarded meal.

Their natural diet consists of acorns (of which there is an abundance this autumn) insects and fruit and they are not averse on occasions to steal nestlings or eggs.

The bird owes its name to its loud explosive "tchak-tchak" calls, hence jackdaw or small crow.

Of course, the resourceful birds are well known for their habit of finding and hiding bright objects and their notorioty was alluded to in the famous 19th century poem entitled 'The jackdaw of Rheims' in which a jackdaw is accused of stealing the ring of the archbishop of thet French city.

 



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