15 September 2024: Day 9, Ronda and the Sierra Grazalema Mountains, WINGS Spain in Autumn Click here to see (generally) where I am today.
It’s been nine years since I first became fascinated by the long curved bills of the “crows with red beaks.” Today I am in red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) territory in Spain, home of this Life Bird.
Red-billed choughs, pronounced “chuff“, are native corvids in Europe, Asia and North Africa but they are essentially sedentary. They don’t migrate so I have to visit their homeland if I want to see them.
Their favorite habitats are coastal cliffs and mountain meadows strewn with boulders where they poke their beaks into grass and soil to find insects. They will also forage in grassy areas in mountain towns.
Red-billed choughs roost on the cliffs of Ronda where we are staying two nights. They arrive before sunset in the cliff valley spanned by the Puente Nuevo bridge, right of center in the photo below.
Here they are in a similar setting in Cadiz.
Just like crows, choughs assemble in flocks and make a lot of noise. However, choughs sound different from crows. Their name “chough” is supposed to mimic the sound but nothing can quite compare.
In North America people claim to have seen red-billed choughs in the wild but we don’t have them. Read about it in this vintage article, especially the comments.
A crow with bling. How special. Just being a crow is amazing enough; then add a red beak. OMG.