Thursday 8 February 2018

Finding out more about Hoodies


In an attempt to find out more about Hooded Crows (love them or hate them......we don’t know a lot about their movements and even less about their population demography) David Jardine has been colour-ringing nestlings on Colonsay in the southern Hebrides and will be interested in any sightings from Ireland.

Previous work with metal rings has shown that birds do disperse from the island; a nestling ringed on Colonsay in May 2013, was found at Bunnahabhain, Islay the following February. Last summer another Hoodie, ringed as a nestling on Colonsay on 22 May 2007, was caught in a crow trap on 25 May 2017. 

The current longevity record for a Hooded Crow is of a bird shot at Lockerbie, Dumfries & Galloway which had been ringed in Opland, Norway six years, four months and three day previously. 

David would be delighted to hear of any sightings of Hooded Crows with yellow colour-rings seen in Ireland (he can be contacted at dcjardine@btinternet.com).