The principal difference lies in the plumage; many but not all adults have large areas of creamy white on the lower parts extending up around the neck as a broad collar.

The head, throat, wings, and tail are glossy black and the ear coverts are grizzled grey.

The only other pied corvid species inhabiting the same region is the Chinese collared crow (Corvus torquatus), but as this is a much larger bird (about the same size or slightly larger than the carrion crow), confusion is unlikely to occur.

The Daurian jackdaw ranges from the southern part of eastern Siberia, south to Mongolia and throughout much of China.

The food is similar to that of the western jackdaw and includes cultivated grains, insects, berries, eggs, carrion, and faeces.