MEET Rookie, the horse-riding jackdaw from West Fife!

Samantha McIntosh, 25, first came across the baby bird when it was being pulled apart by vicious crows intent on eating it alive. After nursing it back to health, she tried to let it loose back into the wild but Rookie – named before Samantha realised what type of bird it was – kept coming back to take part in its favourite pastime of riding horses!

“She loves going out with them,” she said. “As soon as I tack them up she goes on the saddle! She’ll either sit on the front of the saddle or ride on my finger and open her wings. She’s just so much fun – I’ve never seen a bird show so much affection. Whenever I go to the horses she follows me and that’s how it started.”

Samantha first discovered the bird when she saved its life back in May this year.

“I was just having a normal day with the horses when I heard this screaming,” she said. “I found a little fledgling just two-weeks-old being badly eaten by five adult crows. They had been pecking at her ear and her eye and she had parts of her wing missing.

“I took her home not expecting her to live but she was still alive the next day. I kept her for a week and she got stronger and eventually she must have thought I was her mum! I brought her up in the house and she got bigger and started flapping her wings so I started taking her out when I went to the horses.

“I tried to leave her there but she didn’t want to stay and she flew to the village to find me!”

Samantha eventually phoned the SSPCA and took Rookie to a sanctuary. But even now that she’s been released, she still comes back for visits even if she no longer lives in Samantha’s house.

“She’s just an amazing bird,” added Samantha.