Operation Chough webcams GO LIVE!

22nd March 2016

Enjoy watching the 2016 Chough webcams! Operation Chough is a conservation project established at Paradise Park, in Hayle, Cornwall in 1987. It breeds Red-billed Choughs and works with partners to reintroduce the species where it has become extinct or to support current populations, if necessary for demographic or genetic reasons.

Ray Hales, Paradise Park Manager and chief chough enthusiast comments “The webcams have really helped us breed the choughs with eleven produced in 2015 – our most successful year.

The images are from the secluded aviaries where our flock breed. This year we have five nesting pairs which went from their winter flocking aviary into their individual aviaries at the start of March. The oldest is an 18 year old female who fledged three chicks last year. Over the next few months, if all goes well, we will see twigs being carefully arranged in the nest boxes, moss and horsehair lining added, eggs laid and finally chough chicks ready to fledge.

The nest cameras have a small set of lights placed inside the nest box, at night they switch to infra-red, and the birds can often be seen roosting or later on incubating eggs or brooding chicks. When looking at the four nests on screen, the sound comes from one of the four nests.”

The Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) is a member of the crow family distinguished by its striking red feet and elegantly curved bill. The chough is slightly larger than a Jackdaw, and is smaller and more graceful than a Carrion Crow. Although described as a black bird, the chough’s plumage has a blue/green sheen.

Males and females look identical, although generally males are slightly larger than females with their weight ranging from 280-350grams.

THANK YOU – With some great nest-building action underway already we would like to thank Old Mill Stables in Lelant for the lovely horsehair.

More information on Operation Chough is available at www.chough.org.