Hi, I wonder if anyone else has noticed that rooks have a pouch just under their beaks which fills up with any food they are eating, presumably so that they can transport it back to feed their young at this time of year? We get several in our garden feeding on fat balls and I noticed this for the first time recently, thought the bird was deformed at first until I saw what was happening. Hope someone else has noticed this as I can't find any information anywhere else about it.
Hello from Cornwall.
Hi,
it's called the crop- it's where birds carry food :) Seabirds carry fish in their crop and will disgorge it if harried by skuas :)
S
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Yes, thank you for confirming that, I think the reason I probably never noticed it before is because until last year rooks never visited our little garden, so I never got the chance to see them close up. I've been recently informed that it's only the male rook that has the crop. Incidentally I was aware that some birds have crops, I just found it very interesting that the crow family have them. Thank you again. G.
It's not the crop. The crop is lower down in the neck in species that have them. The technical term for the pouch is the gular pouch. I'm not sure if only males have them. I'll have to ask my rook-expert friends.
I saw a good example of the pouch on my bird table this morning!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Thank you for raising such an interesting question, Gog
Maisie, very informative indeed - something I never knew myself. I would have said 'crop' too.
The things we find out from one another
Regards
Kathy and Dave
My rook-owning and rook rehab specialist friend tells me both males and females have the pouch.