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The UK Bird Atlas

Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks August to October · Crows, Jays, and Magpies · BOU category AE*F

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
Alun Williams333, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Chough: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Chough has been recorded in 236 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (8%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in Wales, England and Scotland. Reporting peaks in August to October.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
59% or more of visits
High
21% to 59%
Moderate
7% to 21%
Low
under 7%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 29%<1%Low
February 41%<1%Very high
March 59%<1%Very high
April 45%<1%Very high
May 48%<1%Very high
June 58%<1%Very high
July 72%<1%Very high
August 96%1%Very high
September 100%1%Very high
October 93%1%Low
November 58%<1%Low
December 41%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in August

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
D14Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland100%Very high
NR44Argyll and Bute, Scotland100%Very high
SC17Isle of Man100%Very high
SC39Isle of Man100%Very high
SH29Isle of Anglesey, Wales100%Very high
SH36Isle of Anglesey, Wales100%Very high
SH44Gwynedd, Wales100%Very high
SH45Gwynedd, Wales100%Very high
SH49Isle of Anglesey, Wales100%Very high
SH50Gwynedd, Wales100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.