Song birds have been well serenaded in the poetry spot this spring! Today it’s the turn of a less instantly endearing, if characterful, avian family.

The piece comes from Garfield Taylor’s collection, White Horses (Book Guild, £12.99).

                  CORVIDAE

That bright-eyed bird the carrion crow

Is not so daft as he might seem.

If there’s some trick he doesn’t know,

He’ll work it out and hatch a scheme.

~

The birdfeeder is to him a challenge,

Conveniently dangling from some tree.

Watch him perch upon the top

And peck until the string breaks free.

~

The magpie’s gift is all for taking,

Bright jewel or bird’s egg he’ll not pass by.

His domed nest secured at twice the making,

Know him pied with rattling cry.

~

By contrast, the jackdaw’s call is “yak”,

He wears his ruff in shades of grey.

He’ll nest within a chimney stack,

Nor sooty sweep will him dismay.

~

Who seeks the brightly-coloured jay

May find him in vibrant Todmorden town.

Look for him sometime, as gifts the day,

Where Walsden Water comes rushing down.

~

The raven comes with massive beak,

Some moorish hill or crag his lair.

See him soar above mountain peak,

Circling on thermals of rising air.

~

But at Tower of London the raven stays;

If he should go, then England falls.

They’ve clipped his wings to curb his ways,

He’s tourists’ wag within four walls.