Western Jackdaw

Jackdaws live together in tightly-structured hierarchies. The larger the bird, the higher its position in the order. This order is important for finding the right mate. Once a male and female jackdaw team up, they remain together for life.
Jackdaws are real urban birds and feel more than at home among people. Indeed, due to the noise they make they may even form a nuisance in some areas. But cities also benefit from their presence, since they also clean up dog poop.

This specimen comes from the collection of the ornithologist Jan Pieter van Wickevoort Crommelin (1830-1891). The museum actually owes most of its stuffed Dutch migratory and sedentary birds to Van Wickevoort Crommelin. He was the leading expert on Dutch birds of his time. At the age of 30, Van Wickevoort Crommelin lost his eyesight as the result of an eye infection. Nevertheless, he continued to collect birds. He was able to recognise purely by touch which species he was holding in his hands.
Thanks to his close friendship with Coenraad Jacob Temminck, the Director of the National Museum of Natural History at that time, the museum’s taxidermists would actually stuff Van Wickevoort Crommelin’s animals for him free of charge. This jackdaw, for example, was stuffed and mounted by Jacobus Thomas ter Meer (1803-1877), the museum’s first resident taxidermist.