Below are photos of jackdaws that I took on one of my recent walks. In European cities, jackdaws, like pigeons, are typical urban birds. They belong to the corvid family and are about the size of pigeons. They used to live mainly in tree hollows, but after World War II they made cities their main base.
I love watching these birds because they are extremely intelligent, like all corvids. They display advanced reasoning abilities and can use tools. They use sticks to extract food.
In addition, they remember specific people and know who poses a threat to them and who they do not need to fear. This makes it possible to even befriend them. Once they get to know you and you show them that you are not a threat, they will feel comfortable in your presence and behave as if nothing had happened, which can give you insight into their behavior.
I spotted these jackdaws in my neighborhood and started observing them. At first, they were wary, but they saw that I was not a threat to them. Nevertheless, they kept a safe distance, although it was not very far, as I was taking pictures with my phone, which forced me to get close to them.
At first, they wouldn't let me get closer than 5 meters. I watched them for about 40 minutes and walked among them. I think they realized that I was not a predator and I had no bad intentions, so they eventually stopped paying much attention to me. I was able to get as close as 1.5 meters, which is when I took these photos.
What amazes me about birds is that they are direct descendants of dinosaurs — creatures that have always fascinated me. Even as a kid, I had a whole paleontology library for curious kids.
It's hard for me to imagine dinosaurs when I see sparrows, pigeons, parrots, or chickens, but when I look at corvids, including jackdaws, I immediately imagine their reptilian ancestors. Their gait is very similar to what is shown in dinosaur movies, such as Jurassic Park and other films. If we add to this the fact that we now know that some dinosaurs were feathered, corvids capture the imagination even more.
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