Saturday, July 31, 2010

Alpine Chough


Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) or Yellow-billed Chough (pronounced~ chuff). These were seen fearlessly exploring the tourst spots for morsels of food on Mount Pilatus, Luzern, Switzerland. This is the nominate bird.

C. Linnaeus who first described the bird in the yr 1766 in his Systema Naturae on page 158, says 'Habitat in Helvetiae alpibus'. Or 'Habitat in Swiss Alps'.
Alpine Chough
It is distributed through Europe and asia, and is found near high altitude cliffs.




Image via Wikipedia


There are other sub-species apart from the nominate (Pyrrhocorax graculus graculus) which is found in Europe.
Pyrrhocorax graculus digitatus  (W Asia)
Pyrrhocorax graculus forsythi (Himalaya)
The distiction betwen the last two is disputed.

Here's a forsythi shot near Gaumukh (~4000m) in the Uttarakhand Himalaya

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