Red-billed Chough

Overview

The red-billed chough, also known as the Cornish chough, is a bird in the crow family (Corvidae) and one of only two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax. It is a non-migratory resident that breeds across a vast range extending from the western coasts of Ireland and Britain through southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East to Central Asia, India, and China.

Identification

• Glossy velvet-black plumage with a green gloss on the body, contrasted by a long curved red bill and red legs.
• Large bird (39–40 cm in length) with a loud, ringing 'chee-ow' call that is clearer and louder than that of the jackdaw.
• Distinctive buoyant, acrobatic flight with widely spread primaries; juveniles have an orange bill, pink legs, and less glossy plumage until their first autumn.

Habitat

Primarily inhabits high mountains, found at elevations between 2,000 and 2,500 metres in North Africa and mainly between 2,400 and 3,000 metres in the Himalayas, where it has been recorded as high as 7,950 metres on Mount Everest. In the British Isles and Brittany, it also breeds on coastal sea cliffs, feeding on adjacent short grazed grassland or machair.

Diet

Feeds mainly on invertebrates such as ants, spiders, dung beetles, and emerging flies, using its long curved bill to pick them off the surface or dig into the ground. It typically forages in flocks on short grazed grassland, and while invertebrates make up most of its diet, it will also consume vegetable matter including fallen grain and, in the Himalayas, ripening barley heads.

Did you know?

The name 'chough' was originally an onomatopoeic term for the jackdaw, but it transferred to this species after the jackdaw's population declined; the bird was formerly associated with fire-raising, a myth arising from its habit of collecting wool and hair to line its nests, which was once believed to be used for igniting fires.