Fun Corvus Monedula Facts For Kids

Just like crows and jays, jackdaws are also part of the Corvidae family. But they are not as colorful as a jay nor as big as a crow. The jackdaw population is in the millions. The northern and eastern populations migrate to the south during the winter season. They are also called Eurasian jackdaws (Corvus monedula). They are passerine birds (sparrow-shaped). A group of jackdaws is called a train or clattering. The Corvus monedula's habitat is similar to that of a crow's, for example in a tree, cliffs, and broken buildings. There are four subspecies of this bird, they are the Nordic jackdaw (C. m. monedula), western Eurasian jackdaw (C. monedula spermologus), eastern Eurasian jackdaw (C. m. soemmerringii), and the Algerian jackdaw (C. m. cirtensis).

Read on to learn more interesting facts about these birds. For more relatable content, check out these blue jay facts and great-tailed grackle facts for kids.

What type of animal is a jackdaw?

The Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) is a type of bird with the shape of a sparrow from the crow family.

What class of animal does a jackdaw belong to?

It belongs to the Aves class of the Animalia kingdom.

How many western jackdaws are there in the world?

There are around 39-85 million jackdaws present as per the IUCN Red List. Their current population trend is stable.

Where does a jackdaw live?

The jackdaw's (Corvus monedula) range can be found from northwest Africa to the entire European continent except the subarctic north. It also extends eastwards through central Asia to the eastern Himalayas. It is also found in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwest India. Earlier, it was also found in Tunisia and Malta but has become regionally extinct in these places.

What is a jackdaw's habitat?

Corvus monedula are found living in farmlands, coastal cliffs, forests, pastures as well as urban areas. Jackdaws live in nests. They build their nest with sticks, wool, and hair. They get wool from farms where they sit on top of sheep to get wool for their nest. They build nests in holes of trees or caves in cliffs or on the top of a building.

Who does a jackdaw live with?

Just like crows and jays, a jackdaw lives in a flock and with their mates. This arrangement makes it easy for them to protect each other if a predator attacks.

How long does a Corvus monedula live?

These birds have a life span of about 5-20 years.

How do they reproduce?

The jackdaw mates for life and stays as a flock. The jackdaw nest is made by the male with sticks, wool, and dry grass. This bird breeds in a flock so that it can defend the eggs as a group from other predators. The female jackdaw lays four to five eggs. These eggs are pale blue or blue-green in color with dark brown to olive or light gray to violet spots. It takes 18 days for the babies to hatch and enter the world. A baby jackdaw doesn't have any feathers. During the fledging period of the babies, they are dependent on their parents for food and safety.

What is their conservation status?

As per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the conservation status of this bird is of Least Concern. These species of birds are stable in the animal kingdom. Due to the increase in the population of these birds, their attacks on the farms have increased. So farmers as a part of pest control shoot this bird down. In the UK, this is one of the birds that can be legally trapped.

What does Corvus monedula look like?

These birds are commonly shiny black in color with blue or green feathers and their throat and tail are of a blue-green color. While their cheek and neck have a silvery gray color, they have bright silvery-white irises. As they are passerine birds they look like sparrows. However, they are the smallest among the birds in the crow family.

How cute are they?

Even though this bird isn't very colorful, it is beautiful in its own way. It has bright shiny silvery-white eyes and a light blue-green color tail. It is more colorful than a crow.

How do they communicate?

These species of birds are very vocal. 'Kak-kak' or 'chyak' is the sound they make to communicate with other animals. Some say it is also how they got their name. When male jackdaws find food they call the young ones with a 'kiaw' kind of call and females looking for food reply with a 'kyaah'. When they are in large flocks, they make a cackling sound. If predators are coming, they make an alarm call which sounds like 'arrrr'.

How big is a jackdaw?

A jackdaw is way smaller compared to a carrion crow. In fact, it is the smallest species in a crow family. A carrion crow is 18.1 in (46 cm) long, while jackdaws are a maximum of 15.4 in (39 cm) long.

How fast can a jackdaw fly?

It can fly up to a speed of 13.6-24.5 mph (21.9-39.5 kph), they can't fly faster as their wings will get destroyed if they fly too fast. It flies beautifully as it tumbles and glides.

How much does a jackdaw weigh?

These crows weigh around 8.5 oz (240 g).

What are the male and female names of the species?

Female jackdaws are called hens while male jackdaws are called cocks.

What would you call a baby jackdaw?

A baby jackdaw is called a chick.

What do they eat?

The jackdaw, Corvus monedula, is both an omnivore and a scavenger. That is this species feeds on invertebrates (cold-blooded insects with no backbone), fruit bats, rats, eggs, baby birds, snails, spiders, vegetables, and waste food.

Are they dangerous?

They are not really dangerous but these intelligent birds can identify dangerous people and later warn about it.

Would they make a good pet?

As they are small they can easily fit in an indoor cage. But for mating, they need to live in flocks. They would make amazing pets as these birds are highly social species and can be well trained. In fact, once some Italian thieves taught this bird to steal! Can you believe it?

Did you know...

These birds are very intelligent as they can easily identify humans and can even imitate them. These species can sense if a human is dangerous or not. And they have a special type of call to warn others about any dangerous person.

Jackdaws are attracted to shiny objects. They can be scared off by scarecrows and owls.

They usually have an upright posture. Even though both sexes look alike we can easily identify between both sexes and also whether it is a mature adult or not.

Most jackdaws live in one place permanently but the northern and eastern populations of jackdaws tend to migrate during the winter.

These small birds show an aggressive display towards other birds if threatened.

Have you heard of allopreening? It is when the female birds groom the male birds. This takes place in almost all mated birds.

The west side jackdaws are simply called 'jack jack' or 'daws'. The great Swedish zoologist, Carl Linnaeus, gave this name to the species after seeing this bird picking coins. In their scientific name, 'monedula' means 'money'.

Why are they called jackdaws?

They are called jackdaws because they are the smallest in the crow family and 'jack' means 'small' while 'daw' is just an English word among animals.

Crow vs jackdaw

A crow's beak is longer than a jackdaw's beak. Crows tend to live in pairs or alone while jackdaws live in a flock. Crows are bright black in color with black iris. But these North African species are black but have different colors on the cheek, nape, neck, behind the head such as blue-green, light blue, and the iris is silvery white or dark grayish in color. Jackdaws are more intelligent than crows and they can imitate the sound of humans. Did you know all birds and animals have a sixth sense to feel approaching danger such as a tsunami or an earthquake? Both crows and jackdaws have this ability. Jackdaws fly faster than crows. While crows are found almost all around the world, jackdaws are mostly found in Europe, the western part of Asia, and North Africa.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other birds from our nightingale fun facts and rufous owl interesting facts pages.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable paradise crow coloring pages.