Appearance:

Adult male easily recognized by its red head, chest and rump. Females and juvenile males may be mistaken for House Sparrow or Corn Bunting, but are slimmer with shorter and deeper bill. Juvenile plumage olive-brown with dark streaking and buff double wing-bars. Posture often erect, but with short neck, making the bird seem long-tailed. Heavily undulated flight.

Sound:

Song very characteristic. A melodious, pure and short whistle, often rendered as "pleased to meet you". Each note with a smooth gliding change of pitch. Number of syllables may vary. Contact call a short ascending "hueet" resembling Siskin in timbre.

Song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

All black plumage, red legs and relatively short and straight, yellow bill. Note that immature Red-billed Chough has yellowish-brown bill, but never as pure yellow as in Alpine Chough, and the whole bill is curved. Easily confused with Red-billed Chough at a distance where both species occur, but note more narrow, less fingered wings, and longer, more rounded tail. Resembles Jackdaw in size, but flying Alpine Choughs differs by two-toned underparts of wings (darker coverts). Flight acrobatic, but a little more stilted than Red-billed Chough.

Sound:

Diagnostic and very different from Red-billed Chough. A sharp, quite high-pitched, whistling trill "chreeeee". Usually alternated with pure-toned high-pitched whistles, falling abruptly in pitch with a "clipping" ending.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC