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The wintering ecology of the Rook Corvus frugilegus in Northern Kyushu, Japan

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Abstract

Factors affecting the choice of breeding and non-breeding grounds in migratory birds are important in order to understand the mechanism determining their distribution areas and climate adaptations. The rook, Corvus frugilegus (Passeriformes: Corvidae), predominantly resides in Europe but exhibits migratory habits in the eastern Palearctic region. East Asian populations of rook migrate from breeding grounds in the Eurasian continent around the Amur river basin to wintering grounds in central and south China, the Korean peninsula, and Japan. In Japan, the wintering grounds of C. frugilegus have been gradually expanding since the 1980s. In addition, rook populations that have previously roosted in secondary forests have recently moved to urban areas in several cities, resulting in urban fecal pollution. To clarify the wintering ecology of rooks roosting in urban areas in northern Kyushu, we surveyed seasonal trends in abundance, daily behavior, and dietary habit of rooks in two cities, Saga and Kumamoto. Wintering rooks gradually increased from November to December and decreased from January to March. In the daytime, the rooks foraged at croplands at mean distances of 6.3 and 9.7 km from the roosts, in groups averaging approximately 150 and 90 individuals in Saga and Kumamoto, respectively. Examinations of regurgitation pellets and stomach contents revealed the rooks fed mainly on spilled rice grains, supplemented with wheat and barley grains, Toxicodendron succedaneum and Triadica sebifera fruits, insects (beetles), and the apple snail. The rooks formed communal roosts with carrion crows and large-billed crows in both cities by joining their autumn communal roosts.

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Acknowledgments

We thank T. Yoshino, S. Ikeda, K. Nagato, D. Noda, K. Haraguchi, and Y. Iwamura for their valuable information about rook roost sites; Y. Iwamura, and K. Nakano for providing us with rook carcasses; N. Tsukahara for his critical reading of an early draft; N. Tsukahara and S. Sugita for teaching us dissection procedures; K. Yoshida for his help in designing primers; Y. Yusa for identifying the apple snail, and members of the Laboratory of Systems Ecology, Faculty of Agriculture, Saga University, for their kind help in field surveys and laboratory dissections.

Funding

This study was financially supported in part by the Kumamoto City Government Office.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Systems Ecology, Faculty of Agriculture, Saga University, Saga, 840-8502, Japan

    Minami Hattori, Tomoo Sobagaki, Hiroki Matsuda, Shoyo Nakamura & Makoto Tokuda

  2. The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, 890-0065, Japan

    Tomoo Sobagaki & Makoto Tokuda

  3. IDEA consultants, inc, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 224-0025, Japan

    Hiroki Matsuda

  4. Nagasaki BIOPARK, Saikai, Nagasaki, 851-3302, Japan

    Shoyo Nakamura

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  1. Minami Hattori
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  5. Makoto Tokuda
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Minami Hattori, Tomoo Sobagaki, Hiroki Matsuda, Shoyo Nakamura, and Makoto Tokuda. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Minami Hattori and Makoto Tokuda and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Makoto Tokuda.

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The study was conducted in accordance with national law. Rook corpses were legally offered by Saga City Government Office.

Competing Interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Hattori, M., Sobagaki, T., Matsuda, H. et al. The wintering ecology of the Rook Corvus frugilegus in Northern Kyushu, Japan. Urban Ecosyst 25, 1901–1911 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01273-0

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