Nourish Flourish UK is a start-up with something to crow about, much like Robert Greene calling Shakespeare ‘an upstart crow’ back in the day…
Shakespeare and his crows
Have you ever noticed that the Bard’s work included a lot of corvids? So much so that virtually forgotten writer, artist, naturalist, ornithologist, and prolific journal-keeper, Jemima Blackburn (née Wedderburn), authored a book called ‘Crows of Shakespeare’. Published in 1899, she states that her book ‘may interest those who care for crows, and induce young people to read Shakespeare’. Some of her work was similar to Beatrix Potter’s, and she was acknowledged by Charles Darwin as the first person to discover the now infamous behaviour of cuckoo chicks forcing the exit of their adopted siblings from the nest.
Perhaps unfairly, Shakespeare paints corvids as harbingers of death, and in Romeo and Juliet, for example, as ugly birds. Benvolio even enthuses that he can get Romeo to forget his past love, Rosaline, by introducing him to even more beautiful women than her:
“Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.”
In Macbeth, Shakespeare has the lead character set the scene whilst giving his wife a hint of what is to come, but not the full story:
“Light thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to th’ rooky wood.”
Now this leads me onto the fact that whilst Shakespeare’s statement may not be entirely accurate, it is correct in the sense that rooks are part of the crow family. They look similar, though they are a different species. Let me introduce you…
So how many types of corvids live in the UK?
There are eight members of the crow family present in the UK. I’ve been lucky enough to see all but one of them; identifying some of them can be difficult. Let’s have a closer look at each of them:
1. Carrion Crows
The carrion crow (or just plain crow to his friends – I think this is where the confusion starts) has a blunt, yet slender, beak and smooth throat feathers. They can be found in mixed flocks , though are most often solitary or in pairs. As the weather gets colder they usually become more sociable, sometimes joining noisy flocks of jackdaws and/or rooks. The collective noun for crows is ‘a murder’.
2. Rooks
Easily distinguishable from carrion crows, rooks have featherless grey faces and lumps on top of their heads. They hang around in large flocks called ‘parliaments’.
3. Ravens
Frequently confused with carrion crows, ravens are a lot bigger than their corvian brethren and rarely oblige by participating in a lineup! They are similar in size to buzzards, whereas crows are roughly the same size as rooks. The best way to tell if the bird is a raven or a crow is by looking at their throat feathers, as they are shaggy in ravens. Ravens also have chunkier beaks, of which a proportion is covered in bristles. One of the collective nouns to describe them is ‘an unkindness’.
4. Jackdaws
Not to be confused with blackbirds, jackdaws are the smallest of these black birds. They’re very vocal and I find them quite comical. They do have a large patch of grey round the head and throat area, and are really sociable. Their collective noun is ‘a clattering’.
6. Choughs
Larger than jackdaws but smaller than crows, choughs are all black but easily distinguishable by their red beak and legs. Found in Western areas of the British Isles, one of their collective nouns is ‘a clattering’, the same as jackdaws.
6. Hooded Crows
Grey and black, hooded crows have different markings to jackdaws. Their bodies are grey and their heads are black; like a hood – hence their name. They also have black wings and tails. They are of similar size to carrion crows, but are largely absent in England and Wales.
7. Magpies
A group of magpies is known as ‘a mischief’! We all know these black and white birds from the nursery rhyme ‘One for sorrow’, proving that superstitions around them have been a long-lasting tradition. If you look closely, you might just notice that there is a green and blue sheen to their black feathers.
8. Jays
The collective noun for jays is ‘a scold’. Pinky-brown body plumage, a white rump, black tail, and a blue flash with black bars on black and white wings. They also have a white cap with black speckles, and a white throat edged with a black, almost Groucho Marx-style moustache emanating from a black beak. You’d think with all this they’d be easy to spot, but jays are surprisingly well camouflaged. They’re also arguably the most attractive.
Unapologetic yet Useful: Why We Need Corvids
You might’ve noticed that the collective nouns for corvids tend to be quite negative, and maybe with reason. These birds don’t flinch from nature’s harshness: they raid nests for eggs and chicks, and have been known to peck at newborn lambs and their mothers post-partum, causing injuries and sometimes death. I’ve even seen them go after the eyes of fish.
But is that vicious, or just survival at its most unfiltered?
Now, personally I’m more like a jackdaw. I love a bit of mischief and end up in comical situations, but I think it’s high time that I put on my big girl puffling pants (if you know, you know) and crow about some of my work! The Wildlife Gardeners’ Summer Journal is now available here, at a special introductory price. The Wildlife Gardener’s Autumn Journal will be launched soon!
And the Boredom Busters FREE Summer Challenge is available here: I’m proud of both of them, and really hope you enjoy them. Also, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter for some amazing freebies, and follow our socials to never miss an update!
