Chough

Description:

Also known as Red-billed or Cornish Chough, this beautiful noisy bird belong to Corvid family. It is all glossy black with bright red-orange slightly curved bill, and red legs. In size, it looks of a crow size, but a but slimmer and more elegant. In flight (pic N°6) shows almost rectangular black wings.

Habitat:

Seen on slopes of one of the lower peaks of Caucasus, at some 2200 - 2300 m of altitude, the peak overseeing a valley at some 1900m. The valley and these slopes are regularly beaten by harsh winds (as seen well on pics N°5, where winds are moving clouds around and diminish the visibility), and are intermittently covered by coniferous groves, thorny shrub groves, mountain grasslands and barren rocks.

Notes:

My holiday trip to Caucasus paid off on my hoby side, as this long-awaited encounter just happened in those beautiful mountains. Choughs were, a bit similarly to Ring Ouzel, (one of previously reported spottings https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/20...), on my list of must-see birds that kept eluding me...