Rook (Corvus frugilegus) | Details | BirdLife International

Rook Corvus frugilegus

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic source(s)
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of_the_WP15.xls.
Cramp, S. and Simmons, K.E.L. (eds). 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The birds of the western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
Turbott, E.G. 1990. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand. Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Wellington.

IUCN Red List criteria met and history

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2016	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2004	Least Concern
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Species attributes

Migratory status	full migrant	Forest dependency	low
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	37,600,000 km²	medium
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	35,400,000 km²	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	54000000-94999999 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2012
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-
Generation length	7.3 years	-	-	-

Population justification: In Europe, the breeding population is estimated to number 8,170,000-14,200,000 pairs, which equates to 16,300,000-28,400,000 mature individuals (BirdLife International 2015). Europe forms c.30% of the global range, so a very preliminary estimate of the global population size is 54,300,000-94,700,000 mature individuals, although further validation of this estimate is needed.

Trend justification: The population is suspected to be in decline following considerable decreases, especially in the east Asian populations (Madge and Burn 1993). In Europe, trends between 1980 and 2013 show that populations have undergone a moderate increase (EBCC 2015). However data collected for the European Red List of Birds shows that the European population has undergone a decline of less than 25% in 21.9 years (three generations) (BirdLife International 2015).

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Afghanistan	extant	native			yes
Albania	extant	native
Algeria	extant	vagrant
Austria	extant	native	yes
Azerbaijan	extant	native	yes
Belarus	extant	native	yes
Belgium	extant	native	yes
Bosnia and Herzegovina	extant	native		yes
Bulgaria	extant	native	yes
China (mainland)	extant	native		yes
Croatia	extant	native	yes
Cyprus	extant	native
Czechia	extant	native	yes
Denmark	extant	native	yes
Egypt	extant	native
Estonia	extant	native	yes
Faroe Islands (to Denmark)	extant	native			yes
Finland	extant	native	yes			yes
France	extant	native	yes
Germany	extant	native	yes			yes
Greece	extant	native	yes			yes
Greenland (to Denmark)	extant	vagrant
Hungary	extant	native	yes
Iceland	extant	vagrant
Iran, Islamic Republic of	extant	native	yes
Iraq	extant	native			yes
Ireland	extant	native	yes
Israel	extant	native
Italy	extant	native			yes
Japan	extant	native
Jordan	extant	vagrant
Kazakhstan	extant	native		yes
Kuwait	extant	vagrant			yes
Kyrgyzstan	extant	native	yes
Latvia	extant	native	yes
Lebanon	extant	vagrant			yes
Liechtenstein	extant	native
Lithuania	extant	native	yes
Luxembourg	extant	native	yes
Malta	extant	vagrant
Moldova	extant	native	yes
Mongolia	extant	native		yes
Montenegro	extant	native		yes
Netherlands	extant	native	yes
New Zealand	extant	introduced		yes
North Korea	extant	native
North Macedonia	extant	native	yes
Norway	extant	native		yes
Poland	extant	native		yes		yes
Portugal	extant	native			yes
Romania	extant	native	yes
Russia	extant	native	yes	yes
Russia (Asian)	extant	native		yes
Russia (Central Asian)	extant	native		yes
Russia (European)	extant	native	yes
Serbia	extant	native		yes
Slovakia	extant	native	yes
Slovenia	extant	native	yes
South Korea	extant	native
Spain	extant	native	yes
Sweden	extant	native	yes
Switzerland	extant	native	yes
Syria	extant	native			yes
Taiwan, China	extant	vagrant
Tajikistan	extant	native
Türkiye	extant	native	yes
Turkmenistan	extant	native			yes	yes
Ukraine	extant	native	yes			yes
United Kingdom	extant	native	yes
Uzbekistan	extant	native		yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Urban Areas	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Urban Areas	suitable	non-breeding
Forest	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Forest	Temperate	suitable	non-breeding
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	non-breeding
Altitude		Occasional altitudinal limits

Utilisation

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	subsistence, national

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Species factsheet: Rook Corvus frugilegus. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/rook-corvus-frugilegus on 14/01/2025.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2025) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 14/01/2025.