For the last 2 years, the area around where I live has become infiltrated by a huge "swarm" of birds, which I cannot identify. They are medium/large in size, blackish (some of them, the males I presume have a kind of fluffed up feather look around the top of their heads, which is a kind of silvery black colour.) They live along side the magpies that are in the area but on saying that, I have noticed a decrease in the magpie numbers lately. Their call is a single sound emmitted once or twice in succession like "Jo Jo" - although that does not really describe the sound as it is not easy to translate to human noise! We live close to the sea and there are plenty of trees and bushes around the area. They are in a pack of about 50 but sometimes they team up with others and are 100 or so in number. I have listened to the call of the crow and rook on the internet but neither sounds identical to this bird. They are definitely not blackbirds. Can anyone identify the mystery bird for me?
agree with moomoojaj Sounds very like Starlings. Do they flock at dusk? do they roost in the trees? If they are stalings they are a facinating bird to watch at the end of the day. Sometimes there are so many of them that they appear like smoke in the wind from a distance!
It's possible that this is the bird as they are black with grey heads and are very sociable birds travelling round in quite large flocks. See what you think.
kev100 - the reason you can't create a link to that picture is because it's only on your computer (and believe me, you don't want outsiders linking to your computer!) You need to upload it to the web before anyone can see it.
Yes! Success!! They are Jackdaws! Thanks to all especially the sound bite from cetti as I needed to hear that awful noise as confirmation!! They are such noisy birds - not so good at 5am, when it's hot and all the windows are open. Talk about dawn chorus - it's a dawn orchestra.....