Wild Bird Wednesday 741- Alpine Chough

The Alpine or Yellow-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) is a member of crow family,  found in the high mountains from Spain eastwards through southern Europe and North Africa to Central Asia and Nepal. (Incidentally, 'chough' is pronounced as if were spelt 'chuff').

The Alpine Chough has glossy black plumage, a bright yellow beak, and equally colourful red legs.  I was first alerted to the presence of these birds by their distinctive call, which is described as a "rippling preep and whistled sweeeooo'.  

After a while a large flock of these birds passed over head, where flew with acrobatic grace on the up-drafts around the cliffs we were stood on. It feeds, usually in flocks, on short grazed grassland, taking mainly invertebrate prey in summer and fruit in winter; and I can vouch for the fact that they will readily approach tourists to find supplementary food.

These birds were photographed above the city of Innsbruck in Austria.  We took the Nordkettenbahnen  cable car up to the station at Hafelekar, and from that point we walked for another 15 minutes to the summit of Hafelekar at 2356m (or about 7400ft) above sea level.  Once you 'got your ear in' the calls of the Choughs were almost constant - and were occasionally join by the deep croaks of Common Ravens.  

This is a view from the walk we went on while seeing the Choughs.  As you can see it's pretty remarkable.

We had lunch at this spot, and were joined by a couple of Choughs looking for a bit of a snack!

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Cheers  - SM

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