The Western Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula) is the smallest of Sweden's crows, a compact, black-grey bird instantly recognisable by its pale, pearl-white eyes and two-toned head — a matte black face and crown against an ash-grey to silver-grey nape and cheeks, most pronounced in adults. Juveniles hatch with brownish-grey eyes that gradually lighten to the diagnostic pearl colour over their first years. Measuring 30–34 cm with a wingspan of 64–73 cm and weighing 180–270 g, it is noticeably smaller than both the Hooded Crow and the Rook, its nearest look-alikes.
Its short, brisk "kjack" call is almost impossible to confuse with any other crow's and is heard year-round, most intensely during spring nest-site establishment. An omnivore, the Jackdaw eats insects, earthworms, seeds, fruit and carrion, foraging often in flocks on open farmland and lawns; insects become the chief food for chicks during the breeding season. It is a dedicated hole-nester, using hollow trees, rock crevices and building cavities such as church towers and chimneys, with pairs often returning to the same site year after year; the female lays 4–5 pale blue-green, brown-spotted eggs in April–May, incubating them for about 17–18 days before the young fledge roughly a month later. Jackdaws are highly social, forming lifelong pair bonds and sleeping in huge communal winter roosts, sometimes alongside Rooks. Found across Sweden except the northernmost mountains, with a population of 300,000–500,000 pairs, the species is classed as Least Concern and legally protected, though numbers have declined in some towns as older buildings with natural cavities are renovated and sealed.
Read about this species in Swedish →