Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) [XC587357]
by Daniele Baroni from L\u00e9es-Athas, Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es-Atlantiques, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France (call, flight call)
Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) [XC678723]
by Sven Normant from Schlappinerjoch, Gargellen, Bez. Bludenz, Vorarlberg, Austria (flight call)
Subspecies
Hybrids with Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) very rarely reported. Geographical variation slight and some authorities consider that forsythi should be absorbed within digitatus.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
graculus (Linnaeus, 1766) - Morocco (Rif and Atlas ranges), Spain (Cantabrian Mts, Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada), Corsica, throughout Alps, north-central Italy (Apennines), and east through former Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece (including Crete), western Bulgaria and southern and eastern Turkey to Caucasus region and northern Iran.
digitatus Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833 - South-eastern Turkey, south to Lebanon and Mt Hermon, eastern across northern Iraq to south-western Iran (Zagros Mts).
forsythi Stoliczka, 1874 - Central Asia from central and northern Afghanistan Neast through Pamirs and patchily on through Tien Shan and Altai to Sayan Mts and, in south, from west-central and northern Pakistan (including isolated population in northern Baluchistan) eastern in Himalayas to Nepal, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, and central and south-western China.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet