Red-billed Chough

Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax

Rare & very local residents with 460 breeding pairs in Western Britain, mainly Cornwall, Isle of Man, Wales & Scotland with a planned introduction of birds to Dorset in the near future.

Also 2,400 birds in Ireland.

Also breeds in mainland Europe.

Adults are velvet-black, green-glossed on the body, and it has a long curved red bill and red legs.

The sexes are similar (although adults can be sexed in the hand using a formula involving tarsus length and bill width

Juveniles has an orange bill and pink legs until its first autumn, and less glossy plumage.

The call is a loud, ringing chee-ow call is clearer and louder than the similar vocalisation of the Jackdaw.