The Red-billed Chough is one of Ireland’s most unique species of crow. If you can get close enough to see its bright red legs and red beak, these features set it apart from all of the other crows present in the Irish landscape. Even from a distance, choughs have some useful characteristics that can be used to identify them. Their high-pitched call is often the first sign that there are choughs nearby.

 

As they do not migrate, their call can be heard ringing around the coastal cliff faces and agricultural grasslands of Ireland’s north, west and south coasts throughout the year. Choughs are found in large numbers across the southwest of Ireland, with counties Kerry and Cork being the biggest hotspot for choughs.

 

The Iveragh peninsula makes a great home for choughs for two reasons. The first, is the abundance of rocky coastal cliffs for choughs to build their nests. The second reason is the farming system that remains in parts of the peninsula. The cattle and sheep that graze Iveragh’s coastal landscape provide opportunities for choughs to search for invertebrates in the soil such as beetles, ants, earwigs, and the larvae of moths and flies.

 

The field boundaries such as grassy banks, stone walls, and earth banks that run throughout Iveragh’s farmland are also great places for choughs to forage, because they host so many of the bird’s favourite prey items.