Talk:Rook (bird)

Refs needed
This excellent article needs references. Properly sourced it would be suitable for WP:FAC. --Theo (Talk) 00:41, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

There are some good close-up photographs of rooks for the english taxbox on the other language wikis. (I am not sure how to bring them into the Endlish version). Snowman 14:32, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Collective name?
Whats a gathering of rooks called? Highlandlord 02:59, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
 * A flock - most other names eg murder, parliament etc are literary conceits with no real currency. jimfbleak 06:30, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I suppose, but its little info and it doesn't hurt right? Highlandlord 05:46, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Well a murder is a group of crows, not rooks. And I have heard of groupings of rooks being called a parliament before. BethEnd 17:36, 15 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm pretty curious about this. There's a Neil Gaiman/Sandman story called "A Parliament of Rooks" that suggests rooks have a pretty peculiar behavior; namely, a kind of "trial" that they subject one bird to, with either an apparent not-guilty verdict (bird lives) or guilty (rest of the birds kill the one on trial). If this is completely false it should probably be noted as both a "popular media" bit + clarification.
 * As an avid Sandman fan, I've been curious about this myself. According to the story, all the rooks in a parliament gather around one rook who tells the others a story.  If the story is liked, all the birds fly away as one; if it's disliked, the storyteller is killed.  Willbyr (talk | contribs) 18:04, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Dang, I had the exact same question. I looked up rook after reading "A Parliament of Rooks." 65.43.147.44 07:12, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
 * It seems that a considerable amount of people look up 'rook' after reading "A Parliament of Rooks". Is there anybody that knows any truth behind this story? If so, I concur that it should be included under "popular media". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.211.194.169 (talk) 17:40, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Lol, pretty sure, without checking, that the collective noun for a gathering of rooks is a "Gathering"! Gaiman's ref was to the parliament they hold, which may result in the death of a bird (which is documented in some other species, maybe rooks). Parliament is the collective noun for owls, as well. Didn't they have QI in 2006? cygnis insignis 19:51, 22 June 2019 (UTC)

True or false (for Brittons mainly)
In the UK and Ireland Crows are black (not like east of aproximate longitude 10 East, where crows are partly grey and easier to distinguish from Rooks). I once heard that "In England a lonley Rook is a Crow, but 100 Crows together are Rooks !" There seems to be something in that statement, Rooks are more social (and also more urban). But anyone that have heared the expression (or something like it) ? Boeing720 (talk) 23:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Intelligence
This is the text that I would like to include in the article in the "Inteligence" section. Another editor is repeatedly removing some of this information thereby making the article less comprehensive. Does anyone else have views as to whether this content should be included? Cwmhiraeth (talk) 17:53, 22 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Note: [moved from GA subpage, which does not appear on watchlists cygnis insignis 19:11, 22 June 2019 (UTC)]

"Although outside of captivity rooks have not shown probable tool-use, in captivity, when confronted with problems, they have been documented as one of several species of birds capable of using tools as well as modifying them to meet their needs. Captive rooks have shown the ability to use and understand puzzles; in the Trap-Tube Problem, rooks learned how to pull their reward out of the tube while avoiding a trap on one side.  Rooks learned that if they push a stone off a ledge into a tube, they will get food. The rooks then discovered they could find and bring a stone and carry it to the tube if no stone was there already. They also used sticks and wire, and figured out how to bend a wire into a hook to reach an item. Rooks also understood the notion of water levels. When given stones and a tube full of water with a reward floating, they not only understood that they needed to use the stones to raise the water level, but also the best stone to use. Rooks show the ability to work together to receive a reward; though having no preference for working as a group compared to working alone. and also seem to possess an elementary notion of gravity. "

I'm not fresh with the reading on corvids outside my area of bias, but this paper's abtract mentions the relevance of chimps, who are thought to not 'understand' how the trap works due to lack of "a priori theoretical concepts (such as gravity) to mediate their use of tools" "Recently, Seed et al. (2006) tested eight rooks (Corvus frugileus} with a modified version of the trap tube, the two-trap tube task. " and that half the test subjects "rapidly mastered the problem and transferred the solution to a visually and conceptually similar task" (which apes are not so good at) Shall I keep going? cygnis insignis 19:05, 22 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I restored the GA version, but that may have wiped another improvement. I did not see the seemingly arbitrary removal of information as an improvement eg. // Edit via Wikiplus/Trivia. I think I can fill the redlink, and bring some more weight with references for verifiability and notability, cygnis insignis 18:38, 22 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, do! Cwmhiraeth (talk) 19:15, 22 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I need to deep dive the literature, for a comparison of how they rate with other smart birds, Gisella Kaplan is a leading researcher. Birds tend to outperform mammals, so they are a good comparative test subject and I think this species is one of the best studied, great apes are only quite intelligent for mammals (humans have other advantages that skew measures of intelligence, not sure if they have been compared to corvids). I have a strange story about magpies, and another about crows, but that is pers comm and irrelevant here :-) cygnis insignis 19:42, 22 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I am tired and about to sleep, but my thinking is veering keep. Need to read it properly tomorrow Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 15:25, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

external links modified
Just added a link to educational article with a video about Rook. I think would be very interesting for kids (video) and adults — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mark.barkan (talk • contribs) 09:32, 1 July 2022 (UTC)