Red-billed chough

The red-billed chough was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Upupa pyrrhocorax. It was moved to its current genus, Pyrrhocorax, by Marmaduke Tunstall in his 1771 Ornithologia Britannica. The genus name is derived from Greek πυρρός (pyrrhos), "flame-coloured", and κόραξ (korax), "raven". The only other member of the genus is the Alpine chough Pyrrhocorax graculus; hybrids with Alpine chough are known. Traditionally, the closest relatives of the choughs have been thought to be the typical crows Corvus and the jackdaws Coloeus, but more recent genetic studies have suggested the choughs are basal to a group of Asian jay genera (Crypsirina, Dendrocitta, Platysmurus, Temnurus), or most recently, basal in the entire Corvidae. Subspecies There are eight extant subspecies, although differences between them are slight. • P. p. erythroramphos, described by Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1817 as Coracia erythrorhamphos, occurs in the red-billed chough's continental European range, excluding Greece. It is larger and slightly greener than the nominate race. • P. p. baileyi described by Austin Loomer Rand and Charles Vaurie under its current name in 1955, is a dull-plumaged subspecies endemic to Ethiopia, where it occurs in two separate areas. The two populations could possibly represent different subspecies. breeds from Greece to Afghanistan. It is larger than the African subspecies, but it has a smaller bill and its plumage is very green-tinted, with little gloss. is found from the Himalayas to western China, but intergrades with P. p. docilis in the west of its range. It is the largest subspecies, long-tailed, and with blue or purple-blue glossed feathers. breeds in Central Asia. It is smaller and less strongly blue than P. p. himalayanus, breeds in central and northern China, Mongolia and southern Siberia. It is similar to P. p. centralis but with a weaker bill. There is one known prehistoric form of the red-billed chough. P. p. primigenius, a subspecies that lived in Europe during the last ice age, which was described in 1875 by Alphonse Milne-Edwards from finds in southwest France. Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax -Penwith -Cornwall -flying-8b.jpg|Nominate subspecies P. p. pyrrhocorax in flight in Cornwall, UK Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax -standing-8.jpg|Adult of subspecies P. p. barbarus on La Palma, Canary Islands Red-billed Chough I IMG 7083.jpg|Immature P. p. himalayanus at at Tilla Lotani, India Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax erythroramphus MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.171.6.jpg|Eggs of Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax erythroramphos – (MHNT) Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax MWNH 1378.JPG|Egg, collection Museum Wiesbaden Etymology "Chough" was originally an alternative onomatopoeic name for the jackdaw Coloeus monedula, based on its call. The similar red-billed species, formerly particularly common in Cornwall, became known initially as "Cornish chough" and then just "chough", the name transferring from one species to the other. The Australian white-winged chough Corcorax melanorhamphos, despite its similar shape and habits, is in a separate family Corcoracidae only moderately related to the Corvidae and not notably to the true choughs, and is an example of convergent evolution. ==Description==

The adult of the "nominate" subspecies of the red-billed chough, P. p. pyrrhocorax, is in length, has a wingspan,) but the juvenile has an orange bill and pink legs until its first autumn, and less glossy plumage. ==Distribution and habitat==

The red-billed chough breeds in Ireland, western Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Brittany, the Alps, La Palma in the Canary Islands, across southern Europe and the Mediterranean basin, northern Arabia, northern Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and in mountainous country across Central Asia, India and China, with two separate populations in the Ethiopian Highlands. It is a non-migratory resident throughout its range. It tends to breed at a lower elevation than the Alpine chough, that species having a diet better adapted to high altitudes. ==Behaviour and ecology==

Breeding The red-billed chough breeds from three years of age, and normally raises only one brood a year, A pair exhibits strong mate and site fidelity once a bond is established. Old buildings may be used, and in Tibet working monasteries provide sites, as occasionally do modern buildings in Mongolian towns, including Ulaanbaatar. The female incubates for 17–18 days before the altricial downy chicks are hatched, and is fed at the nest by the male. The female broods the newly hatched chicks for around ten days, and then both parents share feeding and nest sanitation duties. The chicks fledge 31–41 days after hatching. The temperature and rainfall in the months preceding breeding correlates with the number of young fledging each year and their survival rate. Chicks fledging under good conditions are more likely to survive to breeding age, and have longer breeding lives than those fledging under poor conditions. The preferred feeding habitat is short grass produced by grazing, for example by sheep and rabbits, the numbers of which are linked to the chough's breeding success. Suitable feeding areas can also arise where plant growth is hindered by exposure to coastal salt spray or poor soils. It will use its long curved bill to pick ants, dung beetles and emerging flies off the surface, or to dig for grubs and other invertebrates. The typical excavation depth of reflects the thin soils which it feeds on, and the depths at which many invertebrates occur, but it may dig to in appropriate conditions. Where the two chough species occur together, there is only limited competition for food. An Italian study showed that the vegetable part of the winter diet for the red-billed chough was almost exclusively Gagea bulbs, whilst the Alpine chough took berries and hips. In June, red-billed choughs fed on Lepidoptera larvae whereas Alpine choughs ate cranefly pupae. Later in the summer, the Alpine chough mainly consumed grasshoppers, whilst the red-billed chough added cranefly pupae, fly larvae and beetles to its diet. Both choughs will hide food in cracks and fissures, concealing the cache with a few pebbles. Natural threats The red-billed chough's predators include the peregrine falcon, golden eagle and Eurasian eagle-owl, while the common raven will take nestlings. This species is occasionally parasitised by the great spotted cuckoo, a brood parasite for which the Eurasian magpie is the primary host. Red-billed choughs can acquire blood parasites such as Plasmodium, but a study in Spain showed that the prevalence was less than one percent, and unlikely to affect the life history and conservation of this species. These low levels of parasitism contrast with a much higher prevalence in some other passerine groups; for example a study of thrushes in Russia showed that all the fieldfares, redwings and song thrushes sampled carried haematozoans, particularly Haemoproteus and Trypanosoma. Red-billed choughs can also carry mites, but a study of the feather mite Gabucinia delibata, acquired by young birds a few months after fledging when they join communal roosts, suggested that this parasite actually improved the body condition of its host. It is possible that the feather mites enhance feather cleaning and deter pathogens, and may complement other feather care measures such as sunbathing, and anting—rubbing the plumage with ants (the formic acid from the insects deters parasites). ==Status==

The red-billed chough has an extensive range, estimated at , and a large population, including an estimated 86,000 to 210,000 individuals in Europe. Over its range as a whole, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the global population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations), and is therefore evaluated as least concern. The European breeding population is between 12,265 and 17,370 pairs, but only in Spain is the species still widespread. Since in the rest of the continent breeding areas are fragmented and isolated, the red-billed chough has been categorised as "vulnerable" in Europe. In Spain the red-billed chough has recently expanded its range by utilising old buildings, with 1,175 breeding pairs in a study area. These new breeding areas usually surround the original montane core areas. However, the populations with nest sites on buildings are threatened by human disturbance, persecution and the loss of old buildings. Fossils of both chough species were found in the mountains of the Canary Islands. The local extinction of the Alpine chough and the reduced range of red-billed chough in the islands may have been due to climate change or human activity. A small group of wild red-billed chough arrived naturally in Cornwall in 2001, and nested in the following year. This was the first English breeding record since 1947, and a slowly expanding population has bred every subsequent year. The first of several releases took place at a secret location in Dover in July 2023, releasing eight choughs which came from a zoo-based breeding programme coordinated by Paradise Park in Cornwall. By October 2023, the released choughs had been spotted flying as far as Dover Castle. In May 2024, the first wild red-billed chough chick to be born in Kent for generations was discovered at Dover Castle and was reported to have fledged successfully the following month, but went missing during strong winds in early July. A second release of six female choughs into the wild took place in July 2024. By September 2024 an additional six male choughs had been released into the wild, increasing the total number of wild red-billed chough in Kent to nineteen animals. In Jersey, the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, in partnership with the States of Jersey and the National Trust for Jersey began a project in 2010, aimed at restoring selected areas of Jersey's coastline with the intention of returning those birds that had become locally extinct. The red-billed chough was chosen as a flagship species for this project, having been absent from Jersey since around 1900. Durrell initially received two pairs of choughs from Paradise Park in Cornwall and began a captive breeding programme. In 2013, juveniles were released onto the north coast of Jersey using soft-release methods developed at Durrell. Over the next five years, small cohorts of captive-bred choughs were released, monitored, and provided supplemental food. ==In culture==

Becket-arms.jpg|Attributed arms of Saint Thomas Becket (d.1170), Archbishop of Canterbury: Argent, three Cornish choughs proper Christ Church Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg|Arms of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (d.1530), Archbishop of York: ''Sable, on a cross engrailed argent a lion passant gules between four leopard's faces azure; on a chief or a rose gules barbed vert seeded or between two Cornish choughs proper'' Flag of the Newquay Battalion of the Cornwall Home Guard.svg|A yellow flag featuring a Cornish chough was used by the Newquay unit of the Cornwall Home Guard during World War II (the unit's nickname was "The Choughs") Greek mythology In Greek mythology, the red-billed chough, also known as 'sea-crow', was considered sacred to the Titan Cronus and dwelt on Ogygia, Calypso's 'Blessed Island', Cornish heraldry The red-billed chough has a long association with Cornwall, and appears on the Cornish coat of arms. and hence killing this bird was unlucky. Legend also holds that after the last Cornish chough departs from Cornwall, then the return of the chough, as happened in 2001, will mark the return of King Arthur. In English heraldry the bird is always blazoned as "a Cornish chough" and is usually shown "proper", with tinctures as in nature. Since the 14th century, St Thomas Becket (d.1170), Archbishop of Canterbury, has retrospectively acquired an attributed coat of arms consisting of three Cornish choughs on a white field, although as he died 30 to 45 years before the start of the age of heraldry, in reality he bore no arms. These attributed arms appear in many English churches dedicated to him. The symbolism behind the association is not known for certain. According to one legend, a chough strayed into Canterbury Cathedral during Becket's murder, while another suggests that the choughs are a canting reference to Becket's name, as they were once known as "beckits". However the latter theory does not stand up to scrutiny, as the use of the term "beckit" to mean a chough is not found before the 19th century. Nuisance species Up to the eighteenth century, the red-billed chough was associated with fire-raising, and was described by William Camden as incendaria avis, "oftentime it secretly conveieth fire sticks, setting their houses afire". Not all mentions of "chough" refer to this species. Because of the origins of its name, when Shakespeare writes of "the crows and choughs that wing the midway air" [King Lear, act 4, scene 6] or Henry VIII's Vermin Act 1532 is "ordeyned to dystroye Choughes, Crowes and Rookes", they are clearly referring to the jackdaw. It is the animal symbol of the island of La Palma. ==See also==