Taxonomy Alpine chough

flying in wengen, switzerland

the alpine chough first described corvus graculus linnaeus in systema naturae in 1766. moved current genus, pyrrhocorax, english ornithologist marmaduke tunstall in 1771 ornithologia britannica, along other member of genus, red-billed chough, p. pyrrhocorax. closest relatives of choughs formerly thought typical crows, corvus, jackdaws in subgenus coloeus, dna , cytochrome b analysis shows genus pyrrhocorax, along ratchet-tailed treepie (genus temnurus), diverged rest of corvidae.

the genus name derived greek πύρρος (purrhos), flame-coloured , , κόραξ (korax), raven . species epithet graculus latin jackdaw. current binomial name of alpine chough formerly applied red-billed chough. english word chough alternative onomatopoeic name jackdaw, corvus monedula, based on call. red-billed chough, formerly particularly common in cornwall , known cornish chough , became chough , name transferring 1 genus another.

the alpine chough has 2 extant subspecies.

p. g. graculus, nominate subspecies in europe, north africa, turkey, caucasus , northern iran.
p. g. digitatus, described german naturalists wilhelm hemprich , christian gottfried ehrenberg p. alpinus var. digitatus in 1833, larger , has stronger feet nominate race. breeds in rest of depicted asian range, in himalayas.

moravian palaeontologist ferdinand stoliczka separated himalayan population third subspecies, p. g. forsythi, has not been accepted , treated synonymous digitatus. pleistocene form europe similar extant subspecies, , categorised p. g. vetus.

the australian white-winged chough, corcorax melanorhamphos, despite similar bill shape , black plumage, distantly related true choughs.