Rookery

{{short description|Colony of breeding animals}}

{{other uses}}

{{Wiktionary}}

File:RooksBackOfSavrasov.jpg

File:2021-12 Amsterdam Island - Indian yellow-nosed albatross 14.jpg on Amsterdam Island]]

File:Fur seals in rookery Pribilof Islands 1950s.PNGs in a rookery in the Pribilof Islands in the 1950s.]]

A rookery is a colony of breeding rooks, and more broadly a colony of several types of breeding animals, generally gregarious

{{Cite web

| last=Mayntz | first=Melissa

| date=December 17, 2020

| title=Rookery - Nesting Colonies

| url=https://www.thespruce.com/glossary-definition-rookery-385367

| access-date=2021-05-22

| website=The Spruce

| language=en

}} birds.

{{cite web

| title= Rookery

| url= http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rookery|publisher= The Free Dictionary

| access-date= 24 May 2013

}}

Coming from the nesting habits of rooks, the term is used for corvids and the breeding grounds

{{Cite journal

| author1 = Ceriani

| author2 = Weishampel

| author3 = Ehrhart

| author4 = Mansfield

| author5 = Wunder

| date = 4 December 2017

| title = Foraging and recruitment hotspot dynamics for the largest Atlantic loggerhead turtle rookery

| journal = Scientific Reports

| volume = 7 | issue = 1 | pages = 16894

| doi = 10.1038/s41598-017-17206-3

| pmid = 29203929 | pmc = 5715148

}} of colony-forming seabirds, marine mammals (true seals or sea lions), and even some turtles. Rooks (northern-European and central-Asian members of the crow family) have multiple nests in prominent colonies at the tops of trees.

However, since rooks are found in Europe and Asia and are unlike herons, and corvids do not nest in large masses in the Western world, it is more fitting to refer to birds that nest with herons as nesting in a Heronry or seabirds or other birds nesting together in trees, cliffs, or on the ground as nesting in a breeding colony.

{{cite web

| title= The Crow Family

| url= http://www.wildengland.com/wild-animals/resident-birds/-crow-family

| publisher= Wild England

| access-date= 24 May 2013

| url-status= dead

| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121227084004/http://www.wildengland.com/wild-animals/resident-birds/-crow-family

| archive-date= 27 December 2012

}} Paleontological evidence points to the existence of rookery-like colonies in the pterosaur Pterodaustro.

{{cite web

| url = http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20041129/pterosaur.html

| title = Discovery News New Pterosaur Fossils Reveal Diversity

| publisher = Dsc.discovery.com

| access-date = 2010-04-29

| url-status = dead

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100326091238/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20041129/pterosaur.html

| archive-date = 2010-03-26

}}

The term rookery was also borrowed as a name for dense slum housing in nineteenth-century cities, especially in London.

{{cite web

| url = http://www.sevendials.com/seven_dials.php

| title = History of the Seven Dials Area

| publisher = Sevendials.com

| access-date = 2010-04-29

| url-status = dead

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100117052827/http://www.sevendials.com/seven_dials.php

| archive-date = 2010-01-17

}}