Jackdaw Training – Meet Nova as I teach her how to be a bird again

When I was contacted and asked if I could take care of this little jackdaw, I wasn’t really prepared — but I can promise you, I got into gear quickly.
Just a few days later, a rebuilt cat enclosure was ready and had become Nova’s new playground.

Inside the enclosure, I set it up like a tiny living room:
a sofa-bed made from pallets, a TV table/coffee table that was actually a cushion box, shelves, a roofed area, a sandbox, a water pool, vinyl flooring, perches — and the final touch:
Nova’s very own entrance and exit, so she could sneak out, fly with the local corvids once I introduced her to them, play in the garden, tease my partner and the other animals, and visit me on the terrace or when I was painting graffiti in the yard.
She went in and out by herself and often flew inside the house to me as well.

At night she could sleep inside with me — either in a large cage with food and water, in a box on or next to my bed, or outside in the converted enclosure… or even up in the trees with the other jackdaws once the time came.

It went really well teaching her to be a bird again and not so human-focused.
But wow, I miss her now.
At the same time, it was truly wonderful to see how happy she became with her jackdaw and rook friends.
I was incredibly surprised and happy when she was first visited by a young jackdaw and its mother.
I think they ended up adopting little Nova, because she spent more and more time with them and eventually began sleeping outside, until one day she flew off with them and didn’t return like she normally did.

Every now and then, a jackdaw flies over the house with a small flock, and when it passes over my garden it yaks loudly.
I hope — and believe — that it’s Nova shouting:
“Hi foster-dad!”