Description
The adult of the "nominate" subspecies of the Red-billed Chough, P. p. pyrrhocorax, is 39–40 centimetres (15–16 in) in length, has a 73–90 centimetres (29–35 in) wingspan, and weighs an average 310 grammes (10.9 oz). Its plumage is velvet-black, green-glossed on the body, and it has a long curved red bill and red legs. The sexes are similar (although adults can be sexed in the hand using a formula involving tarsus length and bill width) but the juvenile has an orange bill and pink legs until its first autumn, and less glossy plumage.
The Red-billed Chough is unlikely to be confused with any other species of bird. Although the Jackdaw and Alpine Chough share its range, the Jackdaw is smaller and has unglossed grey plumage, and the Alpine Chough has a short yellow bill. Even in flight, the two choughs can be distinguished by Alpine's less rectangular wings, and longer, less square-ended tail.
The Red-billed Chough's loud, ringing chee-ow call is clearer and louder than the similar vocalisation of the Jackdaw, and always very different from that of its yellow-billed congener, which has rippling preep and whistled sweeeooo calls. Small subspecies of the Red-billed Chough have higher frequency calls than larger races, as predicted by the inverse relationship between body size and frequency.
Read more about this topic: Red-billed Chough
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.”
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)