Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax
Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax
This species is widely distributed across the Palearctic, more extensively in the western part than in the eastern extreme, where it reaches the Himalayas and Mongolia (BirdLife International, 2024). In Europe it is more abundant in the Mediterranean and the Caucasus, with northern populations in French Brittany and the western coasts of Great Britain and Ireland (Keller et al., 2020). In Spain it is distributed in a fragmented manner across all the mountainous areas of the northern peninsula, as well as in the Baetic ranges and Sierra Morena, and it is absent from the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla (Blanco et al. in SEO/BirdLife, 2022). It also appears in dry farmland areas of both plateaus and the Ebro valley, as well as in coastal areas of Cantabria and Galicia. In the Canary Islands it is restricted to the island of La Palma, with the subspecies (ssp. barbarus), where it is distributed across almost the entire island.
In the Community of Madrid there are two nuclei, one in the mountainous areas of the northern half, and another associated with the river valleys of the southeastern quadrant, where it nests on rocky areas in the mountains and on river cliffs in the lowland river valleys (Díaz et al., 1994).
In the national park it is present in the highest areas around the Cuerda Larga and the northern part of the Peñalara massif, where it finds rocky outcrops suitable for nesting.
The Red-billed Chough requires open habitats such as mountain grasslands, moorlands and steppes, as well as rocky areas with livestock presence; it is also found in extensive dry-farming agro-pastoral mosaics near its nesting sites (Cuevas and Blanco, 2015). However, it avoids developed crops, ploughed fields and irrigated farmland, and prefers fallows, stubble fields, wastelands, uncultivated areas and ecotones (Blanco et al., 1998). It also commonly occupies human-modified environments and constructions (Blanco et al., 1996).
At a global scale, the species is listed as Least Concern (LC; 2014). In Europe, it is also classified under the same category (LC; 2020). In Spain, it is considered Near Threatened in the 2021 Red List.
The Catalogue of Threatened Species of the Community of Madrid (1992) lists the species under the category ‘Of Special Interest’.
BirdLife International 2024. IUCN Red List for birds. https://datazone.birdlife.org.
Blanco, G., Fargallo, J. A., Tella, J. L. y Cuevas, J. A. 1996. Role of buildings as nest-sites on the range expansion and conservation of Choughs in Spain: new possibilities and threat in a changing environment. Biological Conservation, 79: 117-122.
Blanco, G., Tella, J. L. y Torre, I. 1998. Traditional farming and key foraging habitats for chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax conservation in a Spanish pseudosteppe landscape. Journal of Applied Ecology, 35: 232-239.
Cuevas, J. A. y Blanco, G. 2015. Chova piquirroja – Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax. En, Enciclopedia Virtual de los Vertebrados Españoles. Salvador, A., Morales, M. B. (Eds.). Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid.
Díaz, M., Martí, R., Gómez-Manzaneque, Á. y Sánchez, A. 1994. Atlas de las aves nidificantes en Madrid. Agencia de Medio Ambiente y SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.
Keller, V., Herrando, S., Voříšek, P., Franch, M., Kipson, M., Milanesi, P., Martí, D., Antón, M., Klvaňová, A., Kalyakin, M. V. Bauer, H. Gr y Foppen, R. P. B. 2020. European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Birds Census Council y Lynx Edicions. Barcelona.
SEO/BirdLife (Molina, B., Nebreda, A., Muñoz, A. R., Seoane, J., Real, R., Bustamante, J. y Del Moral, J. C., Eds.). 2022. III Atlas de las aves en época de reproducción en España. SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.