Rook Identification

The Rook closely resembles the Carrion Crow in size and color.

Its beak is sharper than the crow's and the base is bare and whitish.

Its forehead is more pronounced than the crow's, appearing "bulging".

Its plumage is black with iridescent reflections...

...and a bit ruffled near the legs and belly.

Its flight differs from the crow's: its wings are longer and more articulated and its tail is more rounded.

The Rook's caws are similar to the crow's, but slightly more nasal, "aarrrrhhh".

It uses caws within a colony to communicate: recognize partners, signal danger...

The Rook is very sociable, living in noisy colonies that sometimes seem very organized.

They gather in roost trees like large plane trees for the night.

The Jackdaw is often seen in their company, both day and night.

You can often see it foraging the ground with its beak.

It moves awkwardly on the ground, but is very agile in flight.

In spring, it can sometimes be seen playing with a colony mate, for example in flight by dropping and catching objects or chasing each other in the branches.

The Rook's breeding season extends from March to September.

For residents, breeding begins as early as March. For migrants like in Russia, it does not begin until May.

It produces 1 brood per year of 2 to 7 blue-green speckled eggs.

The Rook nests in colonies, high up in tall trees.

Its nest is a mass of twigs containing a cup reinforced with mud. The nests are often reused and repaired year after year.

The Rook is monogamous: once a pair forms, they stay together for life.

During the courtship display, the partners keep their wings raised, engage in preening, then food offerings and singing duets.

The Rook is omnivorous because it eats everything and opportunistic as it sometimes feeds on carrion and waste.

It has a carnivorous diet consisting of insects, mollusks, larvae, carrion...

But also a plant-based diet of cereals after harvest, nuts, seeds...

To feed the chicks in the nest, it stores food in its throat to optimize its trips.

The Rook lives in large cultivated and wooded plains, at the edge of woods, and in parks and gardens of cities.

It is a resident or medium-distance migratory species.

Populations in northern and eastern Europe migrate south and west.