Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) [XC769201]
by Marcin So\u0142owiej from Oukaimeden, Al Haouz, Marrakech-Safi, Morocco (song)
Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) [XC496698]
by Sean Ronayne from Fi\u00e8 allo Sciliar, S\u00fcdtirol, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy (alarm 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.