ALPINE
CHOUGH … or Yellow-billed Chough, (Pyrrhocorax graculus) is a bird
in the crow family, one of only two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax. Its two
subspecies breed in high mountains from Spain east through southern Europe and
North Africa to Central Asia, India and China, and
it may nest at a higher altitude than any other bird. The eggs have adaptations
to the thin atmosphere that improve oxygen take-up and reduce water loss.
It has a buoyant acrobatic flight with widely spread flight feathers. The Alpine 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 lined stick nest and lays three to five brown-blotched whitish eggs. It feeds, usually in flocks, on short grazed grassland, taking mainly invertebrate prey in summer and fruit in winter; it will readily approach tourist sites to find supplementary food.
The Alpine Chough was first described as Corvus graculus by Linnaeus in the Systema Naturae in 1766. It was moved to its current genus, Pyrrhocorax, by English ornithologist Marmaduke Tunstall in his 1771 Ornithologia Britannica, along with the only other member of the genus, the Red-billed Chough, P. pyrrhocorax. The closest relatives of the choughs were formerly thought to be the typical crows, Corvus, especially the jackdaws in the subgenus Coloeus, but DNA and cytochrome b analysis shows that the genus Pyrrhocorax, along with the Ratchet-tailed Treepie (genus Temnurus), diverged early from the rest of the Corvidae.
The genus name is derived from Greek (purrhos), "flame-coloured", and (korax), "raven". The species epithet graculus is Latin for a jackdaw. The current binomial name of the Alpine Chough was formerly sometimes applied to the Red-billed Chough. The adult of the nominate subspecies of the Alpine Chough has glossy black plumage, a short yellow bill, dark brown irises, and red legs. It is slightly smaller than Red-billed Chough, at 37–39 centimeters (14.6–15.3 in) length with a 12–14 cm (4.7–5.5 in) tail and a 75–85 cm (30–33 in) wingspan, but has a proportionally longer tail and shorter wings than its relative. It has a similar buoyant and easy flight. The sexes are identical in appearance although the male averages slightly larger than the female.
The Alpine Chough breeds in mountains from Spain eastwards through southern Europe and the Alps across Central Asia and the Himalayas to western China. There are also populations in Morocco, Corsica and Crete. It is a non-migratory resident throughout its range, although Moroccan birds have established a small colony near Málaga in southern Spain, and wanderers have reached Czechoslovakia, Gibraltar, Hungary and Cyprus.
Choughs can be locally threatened by the accumulation of pesticides and heavy metals in the mountain soils, heavy rain, shooting and other human disturbances, but a longer-term threat comes from global warming, which would cause the species' preferred Alpine climate zone to shift to higher, more restricted areas, or locally to disappear entirely.[INFO:WIKIPEDIA]
It has a buoyant acrobatic flight with widely spread flight feathers. The Alpine 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 lined stick nest and lays three to five brown-blotched whitish eggs. It feeds, usually in flocks, on short grazed grassland, taking mainly invertebrate prey in summer and fruit in winter; it will readily approach tourist sites to find supplementary food.
The Alpine Chough was first described as Corvus graculus by Linnaeus in the Systema Naturae in 1766. It was moved to its current genus, Pyrrhocorax, by English ornithologist Marmaduke Tunstall in his 1771 Ornithologia Britannica, along with the only other member of the genus, the Red-billed Chough, P. pyrrhocorax. The closest relatives of the choughs were formerly thought to be the typical crows, Corvus, especially the jackdaws in the subgenus Coloeus, but DNA and cytochrome b analysis shows that the genus Pyrrhocorax, along with the Ratchet-tailed Treepie (genus Temnurus), diverged early from the rest of the Corvidae.
The genus name is derived from Greek (purrhos), "flame-coloured", and (korax), "raven". The species epithet graculus is Latin for a jackdaw. The current binomial name of the Alpine Chough was formerly sometimes applied to the Red-billed Chough. The adult of the nominate subspecies of the Alpine Chough has glossy black plumage, a short yellow bill, dark brown irises, and red legs. It is slightly smaller than Red-billed Chough, at 37–39 centimeters (14.6–15.3 in) length with a 12–14 cm (4.7–5.5 in) tail and a 75–85 cm (30–33 in) wingspan, but has a proportionally longer tail and shorter wings than its relative. It has a similar buoyant and easy flight. The sexes are identical in appearance although the male averages slightly larger than the female.
The Alpine Chough breeds in mountains from Spain eastwards through southern Europe and the Alps across Central Asia and the Himalayas to western China. There are also populations in Morocco, Corsica and Crete. It is a non-migratory resident throughout its range, although Moroccan birds have established a small colony near Málaga in southern Spain, and wanderers have reached Czechoslovakia, Gibraltar, Hungary and Cyprus.
Choughs can be locally threatened by the accumulation of pesticides and heavy metals in the mountain soils, heavy rain, shooting and other human disturbances, but a longer-term threat comes from global warming, which would cause the species' preferred Alpine climate zone to shift to higher, more restricted areas, or locally to disappear entirely.[INFO:WIKIPEDIA]
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