Red-billed Chough

Red-billed Chough

Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax

Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Langtang National Park

In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%

96 Verified sightings at Langtang National Park From 2019 to 2026
3,887 In all 17 parks
July Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Red-billed Chough

The red-billed chough, Cornish chough or simply chough ( CHUF; Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) is a bird in the crow family, one of only two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax. Its eight subspecies breed on mountains and coastal cliffs from the western coasts of Ireland and Britain east through southern Europe, North Africa and Middle East to Central Asia, India and China.

This bird has glossy black plumage, a long curved red bill, red legs, and a loud, ringing call. It has a buoyant acrobatic flight with widely spread primaries. The red-billed chough pairs for life and displays fidelity to its breeding site, which is usually a cave or crevice in a cliff face. It builds a wool-lined stick nest and lays three eggs. It feeds, often in flocks, on short grazed grassland, taking mainly invertebrate prey.

Although it is subject to predation and parasitism, the main threat to this species is changes in agricultural practices, which have led to population decline, some local extinction and range fragmentation in Europe; however, it is not threatened globally. The red-billed chough, which derived its common name 'chough' from the jackdaw, was formerly associated with fire-raising, and has links with Saint Thomas Becket and Cornwall. Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:27

China · 2025

© Bo Shunqi 薄顺奇 · XC1180564 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Alarm call0:08

Spain · 2026

© Alejandro López Morillo · XC1070207 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Flight call1:01

Spain · 2025

© Jacobo Ramil Millarengo · XC961859 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Hemis National Park 🇮🇳 India
~70%
2 Picos de Europa National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~60%
3 Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~40%
4 Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park 🇲🇳 Mongolia
~40%
5 Vanoise National Park 🇫🇷 France
~30%
6 Cévennes National Park 🇫🇷 France
~30%
7 Aigüestortes National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~30%
8 Pyrénées National Park 🇫🇷 France
~30%
9 Sierra Nevada National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~20%
10 Langtang National Park 🇳🇵 Nepal
~20%
11 Bale Mountains National Park 🇪🇹 Ethiopia
~20%
12 Mercantour National Park 🇫🇷 France
~10%
13 Ecrins National Park 🇫🇷 France
~10%
14 Jiuzhaigou National Park 🇨🇳 China
~10%
15 Sierra de Guadarrama National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~10%
16 Snowdonia National Park 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
<5%
17 Monfragüe National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Ulaanbaatar 🇲🇳 Mongolia
~40%
2 Lanzhou 🇨🇳 China
~10%
3 Xining 🇨🇳 China
~10%
4 Tehran 🇮🇷 Iran
<5%
5 Madrid 🇪🇸 Spain
<5%

Zoos & Centres Where Found

# Zoo / Centre Country
1 Dresden Zoo 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
2 Ostrava Zoo 🇨🇿 Czechia In captivity
3 Beijing Wildlife Park 🇨🇳 China In captivity
4 Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden 🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR China In captivity
5 Beijing Zoo 🇨🇳 China In captivity
6 Nuremberg Zoo 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
7 British Wildlife Centre 🇬🇧 United Kingdom In captivity
8 Kazan Zoo & Botanical Garden 🇷🇺 Russia In captivity
9 Zoologischer Garten Halle 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
10 Santillana Zoo 🇪🇸 Spain In captivity
11 Alpenzoo Innsbruck 🇦🇹 Austria In captivity
12 Beijing Aquarium 🇨🇳 China In captivity
13 Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 14 in Nürnberg 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
14 Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 6 in Nürnberg 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
15 Bird Park 🇷🇺 Russia In captivity

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Red-billed Chough in Langtang National Park?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red-billed Chough sighting in Langtang National Park on a given day, based on 96 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 42nd most-seen of the 225 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Red-billed Chough in Langtang National Park?

July

In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Red-billed Chough in Langtang National Park on a given day, against about 10% in January–February, June and November, the lowest months. That is one of Langtang National Park's wettest months, with about 390 mm of rain against 10 mm in November.

What time of day is best to see a Red-billed Chough?

Between 11 am and 2 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-billed Chough sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Where does the Red-billed Chough sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Red-billed Chough is recorded against all the birds logged in Langtang National Park (96 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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