Crows (Corvidae)

Yellow-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) - HBW 14, p. 615

French: Chocard à bec jaune German: Alpendohle Spanish: Chova Piquigualda
Other common names: Alpine Chough

Taxonomy: Corvus Graculus Linnaeus, 1766, Swiss Alps, Switzerland.
Hybrids with P. pyrrhocorax very rarely reported. Geographical variation slight; some authorities consider that forsythi should be absorbed within digitatus. Three subspecies tentatively recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

graculus ( Linnaeus, 1766) - Morocco (Rif and Atlas ranges), Spain (Cantabrian Mts, Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada), Corsica, throughout Alps, NC Italy (Apennines), and E through former Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece (including Crete), W Bulgaria and S & E Turkey to Caucasus region and N Iran.
digitatus Ehrenberg, 1833 - SE Turkey, S to Lebanon and Mt Hermon, E across N Iraq to SW Iran (Zagros Mts).
forsythi Stoliczka, 1874 - C Asia from C & N Afghanistan NE through Pamirs and patchily on through Tien Shan and Altai to Sayan Mts and, in S, from WC & N Pakistan (including isolated population in N Baluchistan) E in Himalayas to Nepal, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, and C & SW China.