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2007: Urban Wildlife - Highly Commended

Jonas Salmonsson Enlarge image Urban rook

Jonas Salmonsson (Sweden)

Urban rook

'I was walking through the small town of Greifswald, in northern Germany, photographing flocks of crows against simple backgrounds of sky or tree foliage. Then I noticed an unusual wall. Just as I set up my camera a single rook flew by. The picture symbolises how rooks and other members of the crow family are now part of our urban lives.' Rooks belong to the crow family. They are distinguished from the similar carrion crow by a patch of bare skin just above the bill, and by their communal nesting sites. They live across Europe and Asia on farmland but also some cities. Food is mainly earthworms and insect larvae, but these bold birds also snatch human food scraps from rubbish dumps and streets.

Canon EOS 2OD + 70-300mm Sigma f4-5.6 lens; 1/2500 sec at f8; ISO 400; tripod.

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