The Status and Distribution of Chough in Ireland: Results of the national survey 2021

Abstract

The Red-billed Chough, more commonly referred to as Chough, is the rarest member of the crow family that breeds in Ireland. Found along our Atlantic coasts and islands from counties Donegal to Wexford, it is a species primarily associated with a range of coastal grassland and montane habitats including maritime grassland, machair, sand dunes, dry heath and vegetated cliffs. Throughout its global range, Chough is closely associated with low-intensity pastoral agricultural landscapes. Historically, there has been a gradual westward contraction in its breeding range since the first half of the 19th century in Ireland, with a similar contraction occurring in Britain on the same timescales. Successive national surveys since the 1960s have indicated the population in Ireland lies broadly in the range 560 - 906 pairs. National populations of 904 and 838 pairs, as determined by summation of total numbers recorded, were estimated in the 1992 and 2002/03 surveys, respectively. In 2021, the National Parks & Wildlife Service of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage commissioned a National Chough Survey, the findings of which are presented here.