New research shows how jackdaws use group vocalisation
JACKDAWS ARE INTERESTING BECAUSE they form unusually long-term partnerships. Once the pair bond is established, the male and female will stick together for years, even outside the breeding season.
If you watch a flock of jackdaws circling over a town or wood this month, you should be able to make out individual pairs within the larger group, just as you can with flocks of parrots in the tropics. The flocks make a wonderful winter spectacle, loved by many despite the volleys of shrill ‘kya-kya’ calls.
New research by a University of Exeter team studying jackdaw behaviour in Cornwall has found that these sociable crows use group vocalisation to work out when they should leave their communal roost each morning. To us, it may sound like a cacophany, but the researchers discovered this is actually a “democratic process” that determines precisely when the mass departure happens.