/VIDEO, PHOTO GALLERY/ The jackdaw, which flew around the Kobylisy metro station for more than two weeks, is enjoying freedom again, avoiding all traps. After her capture was finally successful on the night of Friday, May 19, she spent almost a week at the Rescue Station Lesů hl. city of Prague for wild animals to strengthen a little. Now the current location of the protected bird is again unknown to people.
Release of a jackdaw from the subway into the wild.
| Video: Diary/ Radek Cihla
On the afternoon of Thursday, May 25, the jackdaw waved its wings goodbye after being released by the ornithologist Jaroslav Kubíček right at the rescue station in the Devil’s Horticulture premises (which is already in Střížkov).
Both city forest workers and conservationists from the Prague Animal Rescue – representatives of both teams that participated in the difficult capture in the subway – assume that the jackdaw could join its original flock.
The search shouldn’t be difficult: the place from where she was brought to the rescue station was actually only one subway station away… and a bit. However, she also immediately began to inspect her new place of work. After being released, she flew less than two hundred meters and sat on a tree. At that moment, she was the last to be recognized.
Source: Milan Holakovský
Just moments before the bird disappeared from the sight of its rescuers, it became clear that it was not “she” but “the jackdaw”. “Looks like a boy,” Kubicek reported as he fanned his feathers shortly before release to see what was hidden beneath.
Until that moment at the rescue station, they had no idea what the jackdaw’s gender was. It wouldn’t be a problem to look, but the workers follow the principle of the most considerate approach, which will be as less stressful as possible. Therefore, they waited until the final steps before launch to give an answer. These also included wing measurements and circling.
In the case of the jackdaw from the subway, the rules for the most considerate approach led to the fact that this bird did not even try to stay in the rescue station’s outdoor aviary. Its manager, Veronika Kraslová, explained that it was better to keep him in a carrier and not stress unnecessarily by catching him in a large aviary before releasing him. It was known that his stay would be very short.
Release into the wild of a rescued jackdaw that was caught in the underground of the subway.Source: Diary/Radek Cihla
According to her, this animal patient appeared to be a very grumpy rascal during his stay at the station. If the workers prepared a hygienic litter made of old newspapers, food and water for him in the carrier, it soon looked like after a storm. “Within ten minutes, he turned it into a firewood shed,” stated Kraslová.
Usually the bedding is changed once a day, here it was necessary at least twice. And sometimes it was even necessary to use another transport box due to contamination.
However, concerns about whether the bird, which needed a little extra feeding, would take food well in captivity were not fulfilled. There was no problem with that. He had a huge appetite. After all, immediately after the capture, when he had prepared worms and halved walnuts, he immediately started working on the nuts. The mixture of nuts, worms and pieces of meat worked for him even during his stay at the rescue station.
A well-fed subway jackdaw is recovering. She will be released into the wild on Thursday
Ornithologist Kubíček reminded that jackdaws are increasing in Prague. They quickly get used to living in the city. He observes their increasing numbers year after year at his residence in Prague 4. Of the ones he got hold of – at the rescue station, it is more about injured birds or chicks in trouble – this one was in exceptionally good condition. “He is alright. She was in charge in the cage and flew well,” he stated. He gave away “sensitive personal information”: that is, what the jackal has on his ring. “It is a male, it was ringed in 2023, it is older than this year’s cub – and the number of the ring is according to the database of the National Museum,” the ornithologist calculated.
If this bird should ever come into the hands of one of the colleagues, they can learn about its current story, and on the other hand, information about its current occurrence should be added to the database. The rings will also reveal a lot to the workers of the rescue station. It was the ring that the kestrel got on the first visit that revealed that she had “looked” into the rescue station repeatedly: in the span of seven or maybe eight years. She needed help when she became entangled in a web – and also when she fell into a skylight.
Jackdaw from the subway caught. But now she cannot be released into the wild, she has to feed herself
Head nurse Zuzana Pokorná noted that the station tends to receive a lot of reports about swans. “These have big rings that people can read by eye. Thus, even 50 messages about their occurrence will appear. It’s different with small birds: you have to have it in your hand to read the ring,” she reminded.
Meetings with ducks and ducklings, which appear on balconies, terraces or, for example, enclosed yards, are also common. It helps, for example, cubs that fall somewhere on the way to the water. “But they don’t circle so small. Only the bigger ones, which will stay with us,” remarked the head nurse.
Six jackdaws are still waiting for their moment
Since the beginning of the year, seven jackdaws have passed through the Prague rescue station for wild animals. Six of them still stay in the aviary. Kraslová pointed to one of them: found on Grafická, with a broken right wing. Injuries after collisions or animals that get stuck somewhere, become tangled or perhaps fall into a skylight, from where they cannot get out without human help, are among the frequent patients of the rescue station.
