Red-billed Chough

The Red-billed Chough is a bird in the Crow Family; it is one of only two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax. It lives and breeds on mountains and coastal cliffs, from Ireland and Great Britain east through southern Europe and North Africa, and farther east to Central Asia, India, and China. It has a glossy black plumage, a long curved red bill, red legs, and a loud, ringing call. It has a buoyant, acrobatic flight with widely spread primaries. The Red-billed Chough pairs for life and displays fidelity to its breeding site, which is usually a cave or crevice in a cliff face. It builds a wool-lined stick nest and typically lays three eggs. It feeds, often in flocks, on short grazed grassland, consuming mainly invertebrate prey. The main threat to this species is changes in agricultural practices, which have led to population decline, some local extirpation, and range fragmentation in Europe; however, it is not threatened globally. The bird has also been depicted on postage stamps in a few countries, including the Isle of Man, with four different stamps, and The Gambia, where this species does not occur.