Birds · Passeriformes · Corvidae

Red-billed Chough

Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The red-billed chough is a glossy black corvid with a curved bill and legs of an intense coral red. It breeds on rock faces and sea cliffs in Europe, North Africa and Asia, and depends on the short grassland maintained by extensive grazing, where it probes the ground for larvae. Its decline in Europe is directly tied to the abandonment of traditional mountain livestock farming. Spain holds a significant share of the European population.

Weight

263 g – 312 g

Size

39 cm – 40 cm

Lifespan

17 years

Diet

Insectivore

Feeds mainly on insects and other invertebrates.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

MountainOceanGrasslandInsectivore Diurnal Colonial Bird Mountain Ocean Grassland

32countries 39parks12same family

Fun facts

GeneralA great aerial acrobat; it has been seen flying above 7,900 m in the Himalaya.
Its survival depends on sheep: it needs short grass in which to probe the ground with its bill, and when grazing stops and the grass grows the chough leaves, even though the cliffs are still there.
It is an extraordinary flier: it plays with the updraughts along the cliffs, dropping in a dive with closed wings and pulling up at the last moment, apparently for the sheer pleasure of it.
In Cornwall it is the emblem bird of the region and appears on its coat of arms; it disappeared from there in 1973 and returned under its own steam in 2001.