A small colonial cavity-nesting corvid, with a breeding range extending across the whole of Europe (except at high altitudes and latitudes), from the Mediterranean basin to the Urals and eastwards to western Mongolia. Mostly resident, only Siberian populations are truly migratory, wintering in W Asia. Three subspecies breed in Europe: monedula in Fennoscandia and C Europe, spermologus in W and S Europe, including the British Isles, and soemmerringii in the NE and SE, eastwards to Siberia.