Choughs: Gurus of the Mountain Skies

For many an amateur birdwatcher, choughs, like crows, are not aesthetically appealing, despite their beautiful red or yellow bill or the sheen of their plumage. They are seen as no different than common crows — and despised, ignored, spurned, and favoured over more attractive birds. For me, this general impression is unwarranted, and they are amazing birds. Though I do not claim any authority on choughs, I am rivetted by them and read whatever is written about these members of the corvid or crow family.

Choughs, both red-billed (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) and yellow-billed (Pyrrhocorax graculus), are denizens of the most breathtaking landscapes of Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal, Arunachal, and Sikkim. Even in the severe winter, they do not condescend to come down to the dusty, polluted, crowded plains of India. They are happy to live 3,000 m above sea level in the Himalayas and trans-Himalayas of the Indian subcontinent, but their distribution is much wider: Europe, Central Asia, Atlas Mountains of Morocco, China, Mongolia, Tibet, and far east Russia. In Europe, the yellow-billed chough is found at lower altitudes, even near coastlines, but never far from the mountains.

Street smart

I have read that members of the crow family are intelligent and quite mischievous. There are many YouTube videos showing the problem-solving abilities of crows, but not many people know that crows can also play pranks. They delight in harassing eagles and vultures just for the fun of it. I have seen a crow sitting on a flying vulture or pulling a feather off an annoyed vulture for no apparent reason. Crows also engage in playful antics with each other. Sometimes crows fly for the sake of flying as if enjoying life, a sort of joie de vivre. I saw this in the yellow-billed chough during my early travels from Kargil to Leh in 2005. We had stopped at an army checkpoint when I saw a flock of 30-35 yellow-billed choughs gambolling in the sky. My binoculars first created some concern for the army personnel present, but when I showed the jawans the frolicking choughs in the setting sun, they were also delighted. An animated conversation ensued, and a few jawans said they had never seen “these crows” in such a lively mood. My introduction to choughs (pronounced “chuffs”) had started on a positive note.

Two species

There are two species of choughs in India — red-billed and yellow-billed. Although white-winged choughs (Corcorax melanorhamphos), endemic to southern and eastern Australia, have the same name, they live in woodland and open forests and are not closely related to these choughs.

The yellow-billed chough, also known as the alpine chough, is found between 2,700 m to 5,000 m, descending in winter to 2,400 m, sometimes lower, in severe conditions. The red-billed chough is found from 2,400 m to 3500 m in summer, much lower in winter. In the Kashmir Valley, it is found above Sonmarg, Gulmarg, and often in the Pir Panjal range. Outside India, it is found in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, Turkestan, Spain, Morocco, Tibet, and southern Russia.

Since the red-billed chough is found at lower altitudes, it has a much wider and broader distribution. For example, it is found in almost the whole of Spain, southern Europe, all of China, Mongolia, and numerous other countries.

In many areas, both species occur together and even flock and forage together. Both species are social and generally move in flocks, but the yellow-billed is more social even during the breeding season. The calls of the two species are quite different.

Both species nest on vertical cliffs in fissures, holes, clefts, and cracks where ground predators such as foxes, weasels, and stoats are unable to reach them. Their aerial predators are large eagles and falcons, which frequently hunt them. For such predators, they have a different defensive strategy — aggregation. First, more eyes make it easy to detect a predator and take evasive steps. Second, a large milling flock confuses the predator as it is difficult to pinpoint one target. In Spain, it was found that solitary nesting red-billed choughs breed close to aggressive predators to reduce the risk of predation by more dangerous, generalist predators. Some birds, like falcons, are extremely aggressive (and defensive) during the breeding season and will not allow large predators (e.g., eagles and owls) near their nests. Choughs cleverly benefit by building nests near lesser kestrel (small falcons) nesting colonies. Researchers found that the breeding success of these choughs was much higher than choughs breeding alone.

Feeding habits

The diet of choughs is quite opportunistic, allowing them to remain in their lofty snow-covered mountains in winter. In Ladakh, alpine choughs (yellow-billed choughs) are often seen around army camps and villages where food is readily available. In a more natural environment, their food consists of insects, worms, grubs, bird eggs, green vegetables, berries, barley, and whatever else they can obtain easily. Perhaps they also scavenge on small dead animals, much like crows. However, I have not seen any images of choughs around large carcasses.

Nesting colonies

Chough nesting colonies are traditional, i.e., the same individuals possibly use the same site repeatedly. However, we do not have scientific studies of tagged birds to prove this. Red-billed choughs sometimes nest on sand cliffs in deep holes, either excavated or improvised. Whether they nest on crevices in the steep mountainsides or sand holes, they modify them to their requirements, line them with wool and hair (from sheep and yaks), and lay three or four eggs in the cup-shaped cavity. They also nest on derelict or inhabited buildings and monasteries.

Long live choughs

Choughs benefit from livestock farming as animal dung provides them with beetles and worms, and the grazing keeps the grass short (easy to forage for insects). A European study showed that grazing by wild herbivores, including rabbits and sheep, helps maintain grassland characteristics favoured by choughs.

Mountain species living in a particular altitudinal range gradient are prone to extinction due to climate change. Fortunately, both species of choughs live in a wide altitudinal range, so there is little chance of their extinction. They are also not so narrowly dependent on a particular habitat and have a very wide diet which includes scraps thrown by human beings.

Let us hope that the choughs will be with us forever and may even benefit in the short term from the spread of agriculture and human beings in the high mountains. I always seek them, not on garbage dumps, but frolicking high up in the blue skies where only my imagination can reach these perky birds enjoying freedom and life.