Alpine Chough
Pyrrhocorax graculus Linnaeus, 1766
Pyrrhocorax alpinus Koch.: Klain1909: 39.
Order Passeriformes
Family Corvidae
Conservation status: in Bulgaria: Vulnerable VU B1b(I, iii, iv, v) c(i, iii, v); C2a(i), BDA-III.
General distribution. A Paleomontane species. It breeds in Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Iran, Central Asia, the Caucasus Mountains, the Himalaya range (12).
Distribution and abundance in Bulgaria. Resident. In the past it was rather common along the high rocky peaks of the mountains Rila, Pirin, Alibotush, the Rhodopes and the Balkan range and their lower karstic terrains [4]. Its numbers sharply declined and in many places are now on the verge of extinction [1]. Until the 1960s and the 1970s it bred in many karstic regions of Bulgaria [7] and mostly in karstic precipices in the Western Balkan range [9], the Iskar Gorge [5] and the mountains Ponor Planina and Vrachanska Planina [8]. The present distribution includes high rocky regions in the mountains Rila, Pirin, the Central Balkan range and Slavyanka. There are separate dying breeding places in the Western Balkan range [6, 10], in the Vrachanska mountain [10, 6, 12] and Vasilyovska Planina [2]. It breeds in Osogovska Planina mountain [11]. On 9 October 2005, in Radyuva Planina mountain, 3 birds were observed (B. Petrov, personal communication). In 2006, the species was not registered in the high parts of the Western Rhodopes. The total numbers in the country are about 2 800 pairs [3].
Habitats. Rocky regions in the subalpine and alpine belt, rarely in rocky terrains situated lower.
Biology. It multiplies in precipice caves and along open rock vertical slopes, and in abandoned underground mines. It breeds colonially, less often in separate pairs. The multiplication period begins about the middle of April-May. The nests are on platforms, in niches and on the bottoms of precipices and other deep shelters on rocks. It lays from 2 to 6 eggs (usually 3-4). Incubation continues for about 18-20 days, the young ones leave the nests at the age of 25-30 days. It feeds on insects and fruits, waste on the dumping grounds of mountain huts, rarely small vertebrate animals and carrion. During the autumn-winter season it makes vertical migrations and wanderings, sometimes tens of kilometers outside the breeding areas.
Similar species. The Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax).
Negative factors. Change of the nutrition habitats (high grass growing on the pastures and meadows) after the demise of pasture animal breeding. Overgrowing of the entrances and throwing waste into the precipices; illegal shooting; disturbance by speleologists and rock climbers in the breeding places. Probably also chemical preparations and heavy metals [12].
Conservation measures taken. Protected according to the Biological Diversity Act. Most of the breeding places are in Protected Territories.
Conservation measures needed. Change of agricultural practices. Information campaigns among hunters, local citizens, speleologists and rock climbers.
References. 1. Boev, 1958; 2. Georgiev, Alexandrov, 1988; 3. Nankinov et al., 2004; 4. Patev, 1950; 5. Simeonov, 1967; 6. Stoyanov, 2001; 7. Stoyanov, in press; 8. Stoyanov, Kotsev 1985; 9. Bawmgart, 1967; 10. Delestrade, Stoyanov 1995; 11. Stoyanov, 2005; 12. Howard, Moore, 1980.
Author: Georgi Stoyanov
