Key facts
- Gaelic name: Cathag dhearg-chasach (click to hear the Gaelic pronunciation)
- Length: 39 – 40cm | Wingspan: 73 – 90cm | Weight: 260 – 350g
- When in the UK: Year-round
- UK Conservation Status: Green
- Species on the Edge areas: Solway; Argyll and Inner Hebrides
Species information
How to identify
The red-billed chough is a small member of the Corvid family. It has a red bill and red legs which contrast against its intensely glossy black plumage. They have a characteristic, resonant and cheerful ‘cheow’ call.
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Habitat and feeding
Most choughs breed on or close to the coast. In autumn and winter flocks roam over considerable distances to find food and are more likely to use inland areas. For nesting, choughs use sea caves, old mine workings, abandoned buildings and even modern agricultural barns. In some areas, they use specially made nest boxes and ledges.
Livestock dung is a fantastic source of invertebrates such as dung beetles. Healthy soils are full of inverebrates like beetle larvae that chough can feed on. Strandlines are a good source of small invertebrates. During autumn and winter months, arable land is important for choughs where they eat grain and forage for invertebrates in the open soil.
Distribution
Chough are widespread along the west coast of Britain and Ireland with key populations in Cornwall, Pembrokeshire and the Isle of Man. In Scotland, chough are only present in very small numbers, and therefore the population is highly vulnerable. Islay and Colonsay, with a population of around 40 pairs, supports the entire Scottish chough population. Historically, chough were present in areas such as Dumfries and Galloway and we are exploring whether they may return in the future.
Chough UK distribution map. Credit: RSPB www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/chough
Conservation status
UK Conservation Status: Green
Threats
- Continued loss of low intensity livestock farming through a combination of intensification and abandonment.
- Where populations are small, other factors such as persecution, predation, egg collecting and bad weather can become increasingly important factors threatening their viability.
- The Scottish population has a small, isolated gene pool which means there is low genetic diversity, increasing the population vulnerability.
What Species on the Edge is doing
Argyll and the Inner Hebrides
- Habitat management including overwintering of livestock to manage species-rich grassland. Purchase of a new equipment such as a quad bike and trailer at the RSPB Oa Reserve in Islay has enabled better grassland management for chough at this reserve.
- Working with vets to develop and trail an innovative approach to local testing of parasite burdens in livestock on Islay to encourage the reduction of veterinary medicines which impacts a vital source of food for chough – invertebrates found in livestock dung. By 2025 at least 48 clients had used FECPAK equipment.
- Dung invertebrate monitoring to assess the relative abundance of dung beetles & fly larvae and other insects in livestock dung used by Chough as a food resource, in relation to changes in veterinary medication use.
Solway
- Survey areas of coastline where chough historically bred to assess habitat suitability, including habitat modelling and field surveys. This will help to inform potential future projects.
- Carry out soil invertebrate testing in support of farm management plans.
Our work for choughs
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