page_title: Chough
section_title: Natural threats
hierarchical_section_title: Chough / Behaviour and ecology / Natural threats
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Výr velký (Bubo bubo) English: Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo), Poland Esperanto: Gufo (Bubo bubo) Español: Búho real Polski: Puchacz (Bubo bubo) Svenska: Berguv (Bubo bubo) i Polen
context_page_description: There are two species of passerine birds commonly called chough that constitute the genus Pyrrhocorax of the Corvidae family of birds. These are the red-billed chough, and the Alpine chough. The white-winged chough of Australia, despite its name, is not a true chough but rather a member of the family Corcoracidae and only distantly related.
  The choughs have black plumage and brightly coloured legs, feet, and bills, and are resident in the mountains of southern Eurasia and North Africa. They have long broad wings and perform spectacular aerobatics. Both species pair for life and display fidelity to their breeding sites, which are usually caves or crevices in a cliff face. They build a lined stick nest and lay three to five eggs. They feed, usually in flocks, on short grazed grassland, taking mainly invertebrate prey, supplemented by vegetable material or food from human habitation, especially in winter.
  Changes in agricultural practices, which have led to local population declines and range fragmentation, are the main threats to this genus, although neither species is threatened globally.
context_section_description: Predators of the choughs include the peregrine falcon, golden eagle and Eurasian eagle-owl, while the common raven will take nestlings. In northern Spain, red-billed choughs preferentially nest near lesser kestrel colonies; the falcon, which eats only insects, provides a degree of protection against larger predators, and the chough benefits in terms of a higher breeding success. The red-billed chough is occasionally parasitised by the great spotted cuckoo, a brood parasite for which the Eurasian magpie is the primary host.
  The choughs host bird fleas, including two Frontopsylla species which are Pyrrhocorax specialist. Other parasites recorded on choughs include a cestode Choanotaenia pirinica, and various species of chewing lice in the genera Brueelia, Menacanthus and Philopterus. Blood parasites such as Plasmodium have been found in red-billed choughs, but this is uncommon, and apparently does little harm. Parasitism levels are much lower than in some other passerine groups.
caption: The Eurasian eagle owl is a predator of choughs.
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