Dressed all in black, with a short beak and blue eyes. This is what the jackdaw looks like, or its scientific name, Corvus monedula Linnaeus.
Similar to crows, these small corvids measure 30 to 34 cm, compared to 45 to 51 cm for a crow
as the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) points out on its website. They have been protected since 1989, in France. This status has allowed the population to increase from 15,000 couples in 2010 to 45,000 in 2021, or 90,000 individuals in Finistère alone, according to the environmental association Bretagne Vivante. While on a national scale, it is in decline (-54%, in 2005).
Read also: Ravaged crops, thousands of euros lost: jackdaws are driving these Breton farmers crazy
But while the Corvus monedula Linnaeus is protected, the bird continues to divide bird protection associations and those who want to regulate the species, accusing them of significant damage to crops. But also, to be the cause of fires.
Jackdaws are also suspected of having caused the carbon monoxide poisoning of 48 people, 45 children and three adults, at the Saint-Alban school, almost a year ago. The public prosecutor confirmed that birds were responsible, without specifying, for the moment, the species.
Farmers are fed up
The prefect of Côtes-d'Armor regularly issues annual orders to regulate their scaring and destruction. Thus, from 1is May 2024 to March 31, 2025, the prefecture authorized hunters to kill 8,000 jackdaws in the department.
“The Chamber of Agriculture estimates the damage at €900,000 in Côtes-d’Armor this year, recalled Pascal Prido, vice-president in charge of agriculture at the Agglo, during the community council, Thursday November 14, 2024. The destruction of jackdaws is very regulated. » The Saint-Brieuc agglomeration has therefore voted for a subsidy of €2,500 in favor of the departmental hunting federation. This sum is clearly dedicated to the slaughter of birds.
Sometimes responsible for fires
Because apart from agricultural damage, jackdaws are also accused of causing fires. In question? Their love for cavities. And what's better than a chimney to pile up branches and twigs to lay your eggs in?
“We need regulation: it is an animal that has been able to adapt impressively, underlined Jean-Paul Hamon, deputy to Quintin, during the Saint-Brieuc Armor agglomeration council meeting on November 14 Almost all of the chimneys in Quintin are filled and this creates fire risks, we have already had some! »
The problem is not limited to Côtes-d'Armor and is far from being new. The subject even found itself on the table of the administrative court of Rennes, which had suspended destruction orders from the prefecture on two occasions, at the request of associations such as the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), in 2021 and 2022. Rather than increasing shootings against these birds, environmental protection associations consider that access to their food should be limited and nesting places blocked, by blocking chimneys, for example.
