Chuffs

[David Rees <>]

Philip

You would be hard pushed to find the 'English chough' in England. Should be called Red-billed Chough.  There are now a few in Cornwall again after a reintroduction program.  Best go to coastal Ireland, Wales, Isle of Man or SW Scotland, plus coastal Brittany in France. Elsewhere in Europe it is a bird of Mediterranean mountains. The British/Irish populations are serious outliers.  From the Mediterranean it is found in mountains through to central Asia and NE China.  It is a lovely bird, suppose it sort of looks like the white winged chough in that it is black, similar size and has a fine pointy beak (albeit red!), however  Red-billed Choughs are 'smart' crows and are stunning fliers.  Had the pleasure of filming some on a very windy Autumn day at the end of the Gower peninsula near Swansea in south Wales see https://vimeo.com/98204121 , a stunning location unchanged in the 50 years I have known it.  There is also the Alpine Chough - bit smaller and has a yellow bill.  Europe's answer to the Kea in high altitude ski resorts.

David

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On Sat, Jan 30, 2016 at 10:18 PM, Philip Veerman <> wrote:

Well as you can tell from your evidence, no it is not late. They actually have a long breeding season. The COG Atlas shows NY from start of September till late February. As for you name “Chuffs’ is not right although maybe it should be. They are named after the English Chough that they supposedly look like but they don’t (well maybe dead they do), which is a species of crow. Deserve their own name, just like Magpie.

 

Philip

 

From: Geoff [
Sent: Saturday, 30 January 2016 9:46 PM
To: 'COG List'
Subject: [canberrabirds] Chuffs

 

Isn’t this a bit late for a nest?