29 November 2015
Some birds on other continents resemble our familiar backyard species. Even if you don’t know their names you can make a good guess.
For instance, the black birds above look a lot like crows. Indeed they are corvids though they’re not in the Corvus genus.
The red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), pronounced “chuff“, is native to Europe, Asia and North Africa. Steve Valasek photographed the two shown above in Ireland. Here’s one at Skokholm Island, UK. Look at that red beak!
The big news today was the discovery of a pair of Chough nest building in the Quarry. The three other pairs were still on territory, meaning we have more than in any year since recording began in 1927. pic.twitter.com/rUB5aWA3LY
— Skokholm Island (@SkokholmIsland) April 2, 2021
Choughs are a little smaller than American crows (Corvus brachyrhyncos) and would look the same except for their big curved red beaks and red legs. Here’s a side-by-side comparison using photos from Wikimedia Commons.
Our crows would be amused by the choughs’ appearance but they never see them. There are no choughs in the wild in North America.
After this article was written in 2015, comments come in rarely but regularly from North American readers who say they have seen a chough in their own neighborhood, however …
If you see a black bird with a red beak in the United States, it is not a wild chough. It might be one of these.
1. The common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) and great-tailed grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) are both black with an iridescent sheen, sometimes green, blue or bronze. Their beaks are not red but the iridescence is very distracting. Big clue: What color is the bird’s eye? Yellow? Then it’s not a crow. It’s a grackle.
2. Oystercatchers do have red beaks and red legs. American oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus), on left, live along the coasts of North, Central and South America though not on the U.S. Pacific coast. Black oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) take their place on the Pacific coast from Mexico to Alaska.
3. During the breeding season the beak of the double-crested cormorant (Nannopterum auritum) turns a bit orange. Cormorants are always near water but may be found at the Great Lakes and along rivers during migration. Here are two views of the double-crested cormorant.
4. The anhinga (Anhinga anhinga) has a long yellow beak and is found near water along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts as far north as South Carolina. They breed inland in Gulf coast states but always near water.
5. In Florida the snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis) is a hawk with a yellow-orange face and a curved gray beak. It lives near water and is not common.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons, Steve Valasek and a tweet from @SkokholmIsland)
I have seen the crows stirring around 3 – 4 pm on the northside. They love to linger for a minute at the post office roof and sprinkle themselves in the neighborhood nearby. First, you see one on a roof, a couple on the ground near an empty lot and a few on the lines. The numbers of crows on the post office roof and in close by trees is a – WOW!
I just saw a few in Boston (MA, USA). They look EXACTLY like the picture of the chough.
I believe I just saw one here in Ann Arbor MI.
Found a red beaked crow in my backyard in Ohio.
Just saw one
Central ohio
Just had one here in Toronto area
Well we just had one land in our tree here in Bethany, Ontario, near Peterborough. It was even larger than any of our other crows….
I just saw two birds fitting this description in Nashville, TN. They even had a green sheen on their wings.
North Alabama, on my commute this morning I plainly saw a Chough, I slowed to observe and I was puzzled because I’d never seen a red billed Crow. Whoever said they are not in North America is mistaken.
William,
On the subject of ‘here’: Individual non-native birds sometimes escape from zoos or the pet trade and individual migratory birds sometimes fly way off course and end up in North America, but from a range perspective those species aren’t ‘here.’ It’s so extraordinary to see a chough in the U.S. that I wonder how he got to northern Alabama.
Saw one on the coast of Oregon last week, north of Florence with a regular crow. Definitely not an oyster catcher and saw it forty feet up on the hillside with the crow right off the beach.
March 16, 2019. Saw quite a few of black birds with red beaks near a pond in Boynton Beach, Florida. They are a new visitors to our pond.
Live in Port Richey, Florida and we have seen two adults with two babies near our pond. Are they really crows or Red billed Chough?
Kate & Susan Greenfield, please see the revised blog post with pictures of the birds you may have seen in Florida.
I have one in my backyard, red beak, some white on wings otherwise black
My wife and I spotted what appears to be a chough in Portland, Oregon. Also, we noticed the increase in number of comments in this particular post since 2018 – despite being written in 2015. Is it possible that they are starting to migrate to North America?
Giddings, a wild chough in Portland is so rare that it would be listed in the Oregon Rare Bird Alerts, but I couldn’t find a record of it here: https://ebird.org/alert/summary?sid=SN35555.
It’s possible you saw an escaped bird … or something else.
Regarding the recent increase in comments: I don’t think choughs are moving to Oregon … but I’ve noticed that comments increase on my older posts when there’s a surge in social media. For instance, this week the surge is about Chickadee Nests.
I am new to this site and I’m here only because I am trying to identify a bird that I saw recently that I have never seen in Rhode Island before. A black crow sized bird with a red bill. Not a yellow or orange bill, but red. A chough is as close as I could find as a match, but I don’t think the bill was as long and pointed. I’ll need to keep a camera handy.
Thoughts?
We just saw a crow with an red-orange beak in northern Minnesota!
A large number are harassing my house in lower Alabama. I have pics and even video.
These birds have a human quality to them, as when they look at you, it is as if they know you or committing your face to memory. Very large bird, much larger than usual crow around here; I thought they were vultures at first glance. Definite crow sounds, no mistaking that noise for another!
Can you kindly post the pics and video?
I spotted 2 last week in Henderson, Nevada, walking across parking lot. I called local Audubon society to try to identify them. No luck. Searched U.S. No luck. When I took the search international, I came across the red billed chough, and that’s exactly the birds I saw, down to how they walk. I’ve contacted a British bird group to ask if there’s any way they know of where the choughs could have made it to the U.S. I’ll update this if I get a response from them.
My Mother spotted what appeared to be a red beaked bird black bird of some sort in the front yard in Fredericksburg, Texas on July 1st, 2022. We do not show any birds with this coloring natural to this area or our state.
Ha! I was double checking this topic because I did see what appeared to be a red-billed crow (red-footed too) outside my kitchen window as it passed in flight with a flock. It startled me because the beak was indeed red and he was indeed a crow! I looked it up at the time and saw that it was impossible to exist, my friends made fun of me, and had he been alone, I might have bought the idea that he was another bird. But since he seemed to be part of a group, I can only assume he was the same as the others, namely, crow! So, my thoughts were/are : 1) escaped pet or specimen, 2) migratory bird made it to North America or 3) change in genetic structure.
We saw what we think was a red billed Chough in Shaker Heights, Ohio, today – in a residential neighborhood. Have never seen one before.
I had a totally black crow like bird land for some seconds on the window sill. Red orange beak and orange legs with yellow rimmed eyes. It looked like the red billed Chough that supposedly is not in the US. It was really amazing looked right at me. Have never seen this bird before and I live in Gulf Breeze Florida the Northwest Coast.
I have birds nesting in between my house’s outer and inner walls. They are all black with yellow beaks and red or orange legs. Could they be a species of Chough to?
Amanda, the birds you describe are European starlings. https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2019/10/04/the-story-of-a-starling/
Just north of DC, I saw 2 black crows, 1 had a bright red beak. They both cawwed like crows. At first I thought the one with the red beak was carrying something but it was not. Never saw a bird like this before. June 25, 2020
Me too. In a tree about 20’ away. It looked like a large crow with a bright red beak. I thought it was carrying something but then I got a good look at the beak. I’m in New York on Keuka lake.
I am in Maryland and I saw what at first I thought was a turkey or chicken. It was thick, fat, black and had a red beak. It flew to a tree and crawled the rest of the way up, a 2nd one joined it and left the other three in the grass to search for worms.
Good description. I think you saw a guinea fowl. They are domesticated birds from Africa that eat ticks. Here’s more info: https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2015/05/13/eats-ticks-and-shouts/
Have just seen two birds flying repeatedly over our house that I would describe as crowd with red beaks. They even sound like crows. We are on Fox Island in the Puget Sound very close to Tacoma.
I’m seeing them in WV, they look larger than the other crows, I thought it was a Raven with a reddish orange beak that is why I looked it up.
Yes slightly larger than regular crow. Definite red-orange beak. Up in northern Minnesota.
I am in the northern panhandle of WV and I also saw a large all solid black “crow” with red-orange beak, legs and feet! This was probably two years ago. I had never seen such a bird and I researched it and the red billed chough is exactly what I saw down to the curved beak. I was trying to find out if they could’ve migrated to US and found this thread. He was standing on deck railing and feeding on my suet feeder and was maybe 10 ft away at my kitchen window. I know what I saw. I am a birder and pay attentions to wings, tail, beaks, coloring etc. wish I had a chance to get a pic but he flew away.
Saw one in Cotuit, MA (USA) 2 days ago. Definitely had a red/orange beak and was a larger sized bird.
We used to have a crow with a part-yellow and part-red beak here in Portland, Maine around 2010. He was in a flock of regular-looking crows. He liked to imitate the neighborhood garbage truck’s back-up signal.
Saw among a cluster of crows, a black bird of the same size with a red beak and smooth white face. I have never seen one like him. I took a picture.
I know I saw a red-billed chough today in California! It looked like a black crow with a bright red beak. I live in Northern California at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains in a rural area near Stanford University. There’s a lot of wildlife here, but I’ve never seen anything like this bird!!! It was hanging out near some water in a tub that I put out for wild animals (we’re in a severe drought). When I was walking toward that area, he flew up and it surprised me because his beak was so bright and prominent. He landed on our barn gable and looked so magnificent on the peak! WOW!
I’m cursing my iPhone because it failed to capture the image of a red billed crow that was sitting on a dumpster here near Green River and HWY 91 in the Starbucks lot.
Just spotted 2 red beak birds that look as large as our crows. They look very much like Chough! This sighting is in Jefferson county Missouri.
Barbara from Quincy Ma. Two (shuffs) choughs flew by my window today 11/21/22. Exciting.
I have seen several orange billed crows at my farm in Mannington, W.V.
On 2/08/2023 While I was standing and looking in the mirror in my Master bathroom I saw a blood red billed crow a chough land on the roof of my neighbors house with 2 other crows I could not believe what my eyes were seeing.
I just saw a crow with a red beak in Madison WI. I had a very clear view and was surprised to see a bird with coloration that I’ve never seen before. It looked like a crow had dipped its beak in red paint. I can’t find any bird that remotely looks like it other than a chough.
I believe I saw a chough this morning in my backyard. A black crow sized bird with a bright red beak. I have never seen this bird before and research led me to this article.
Where did you see that bird?, where do you live?
I live in Bartlesville Oklahoma. 40 miles north of Tulsa. Just heard crow outside, I think from my roof or the almost skiing tree in my front yard. I got up, walked to the glass door and immediately the bird flew down facing me but about 10-12 feet from me at my door. He sat for approximately a minute like that, then began searching for worms/bugs as all birds do. He was most definitely solid black and basically sized as an average crow, just the same as the cawing he was doing from the roof/tree that caught my attention to start with!, from no farther away than where he landed in the yard…, I VERY CLEARLY saw a Red beak AND Red legs. He sat pecking and hunting for around 5 minutes then flew off to the north. Of course, me…. Failing to get a picture.
I am POSITIVE I just saw one in Ann Arbor, Michigan. No doubt whatsoever.
I swear I saw a group of about five to seven they looked identical to the birds listed above as “ Red-billed choughs in Ireland (photo by Steve Valasek)”.
I saw them today in northern Michigan, along a road, feeding on road kill. They were larger than ordinary crows. Reddish orange beak, and black feathers. Seemed More Raven size than crow size.
April 5, 2024. Onaway, Michigan.