Western Daily Press (Saturday)
FAMILY ADOPT JAKE THE JACKDAW
...BUT BOY IS A GIRL:
AFAMILY who domesticated ‘Jake’ the jackdaw have discovered ‘he’ is actually a she – and has just laid eggs.
The bird was only three weeks old when it was plucked from its nest by a seagull – and dropped over the home of Jaime Lee.
Jaime, 44, picked it up and looked after it but never expected it to become such a big part of the family home.
Jake – named after the rescued bird from the film Shawshank Redemption – now ‘hangs out’ with them for most of the day.
She has also shown a mischievous side by eating crisps from their mouths and stealing bank notes.
Jake also likes watching them perform menial domestic tasks, such as making cups of tea.
Jaime said she took the bird in and nursed it back to health by feeding it Weetabix.
But Jake the jackdaw has turned out to be female and has laid five eggs in a nest she built following a suspected romp in the garden with another jackdaw.
Jaime has been left astonished as Jake has laid one egg a day in a nest made with torn-up tissue paper.
“We’ve left him as ‘Jake’ – we’re all very confused at the moment,” she said. “We have spotted one jackdaw hanging around.
“She’s very protective at the moment, but to see how far she’s come is just amazing since she was rescued.”
Jaime said Jake had now become so dependent on them that it was like caring for a newborn child as the bird refuses to leave the home in Axminster, Devon, she shares with husband Adrian, 44.
Jaime said: “My husband was washing up and he looked out the window and a seagull dropped Jake.
“Luckily, he spotted it before the neighbours got to it. There were two cats edging towards it and he managed to snatch it up.
“My husband brought him in and we tried to bring him back. We put him in the garden and all the other crows and jacks came over to see where he had gone.
“But we read online that they won’t feed them when they’re on the ground. They watch out for them but they don’t feed them.”
The young bird suffered a damaged wing and leg in the fall and was discovered with two holes in its neck, and was not expected to survive.
However, during the next 24 hours Jake clung to life – despite regularly fitting from shock.
Throughout the bird’s recovery, it lived in the couple’s front room.
Despite efforts to release it back into the wild, it kept returning and has since became an irreplaceable family member.
Such is Jake’s confidence around people, the bird is regularly spotted delighting residents old and young by landing on their shoulders in search of a treat.
Jaime added: “Everyone recognises Jake. He is definitely the talk of the town. He is cheeky, funny and adorable.”
With Jake completely dependent on Jaime and Adrian, the couple said they had to improvise a way to keep the jackdaw fed.
They did some research and eventually settled on a diet of mushed-up Weetabix, administered with a syringe, and cat food.
Jaime added: “We realised we would have to feed him because he was a bit weak and in a bit of a state. He had a bad leg, a bad wing and two holes in his neck.
“He was only three weeks old, roughly.
“To start with, we had to get him something soft down and I tried Weetabix with a syringe, then later my husband fed him cat food and the next morning he was a completely different bird.”
But Jake’s recovery had only just begun, and Jaime and Adrian were forced to continue looking after the bird for months.
Jaime added: “We had to keep feeding him like that for about another four weeks. We assumed he would go after that as his parents were checking on him every day.
“They fed him on the garage roof after three weeks.
“We thought he would leave with his parents but he decided to stay with us. His parents still come to visit and when they arrive they call to him and he calls back but he stays with us.
“He will fly off with them for a while, but he keeps coming back.
“We’ve developed a connection to him, without a doubt – everyone should have a Jake in their life.”