Red-billed Choughs Return to Cornwall, England

Posted by Rosemary Drisdelle Jul 27, 2006

Have you been checking in on the two wild Whooping Crane chicks in Wisconsin? They were photographed on July 25, following one of the parent birds at the water's edge.

Residents of Cornwall, England are also celebrating the return of a bird - the Red-billed Chough (pronounced "chuff"), sometimes called the Cornish Chough. The Chough has not come so close to extinction as Whooping Cranes, but it completely disappeared from Cornwall half a century ago.

Choughs belong to the Crow family and the Red-billed Chough looks very like an American Crow, with bluish black glossy plumage. Its legs and beak, however, are a surprising coral red. Choughs nest in mountains and seaside cliffs - populations remain in Wales, Ireland, a few western islands in Britain, and in mountainous parts of Europe and Asia. Thier disappearance from Cornwall is blamed on a diminished food supply.

Choughs eat insects and insect larvae, which they dig out of the ground with their sharp beaks. In order to get enough to eat, they need open pastureland with short vegetation that they can reach through. To bring the birds back to Cornwall, farmers carefully grazed their animals along the cliff tops to keep the grass short, and waited. Now and then, a Chough drifted in from elsewhere...

A pair of wild Choughs successfully nested in Cornwall in 2002, and each year since, with anxious human guardians keeping an eye out for their safety, and hoping more would come. This year, Cornwall is celebrating the successful nesting of a second pair, and looking forward to a future flock of Cornish Choughs.

Have you ever tried to fold a paper crane? Read my article Japanese Cranes, Symbols of Peace and follow the link to good instructions for origami paper cranes.