THE BLACK CROW FAMILY IN BRITAIN

1 Carrion crow: What is a rook and what is a crow? The rook is a social bird, but carrion crows are rarely seen in big flocks. Remember an old Norfolk saying: “When tha’s a rook, tha’s a crow; and when tha’s crows, tha’s rooks”. The rook has a pale daggerish bill with a bald face and appears to have a bigger head than the carrion crow thanks to its thick feathering. The rook also enjoys more extravagant tailoring in the trouser department.

2 Jackdaw: Smaller than either rook or crow, black with a smart grey head, making it look intelligent. It is too: watch its eyes and see it follow others’. Often seen hanging around in fields with rooks; it roosts with the bigger birds as well. 3 Chough: The most aerobatic of crows with an exquisite blood-red beak and claws. It calls, like it flies, with loud and exuberant swoops. Rare and confined to the western edges of the British Isles, though recently returned, under its own steam, to Cornwall where it is the county bird.

4 Hooded crow: Replaces the carrion crow in northern Britain and across Europe. Looks less severe than a carrion crow, a softer appearance with grey-brown wings, but no less a piratical scavenger.

5 Raven: The boss of the lot: magnificently black and commandingly big, with a huge beak and wedge-shaped tail. It cronks like no other crow and has one of the largest vocabularies of any bird. But the raven is playful, too, and can be commonly seen flying upside down – just because it can – and is also known to enjoy sledging.