Print
Farming for choughs
Choughs may not look like typical farmland birds, but in the UK, they depend upon management of coastal cliffs and slopes and adjacent farmland to survive.
Choughs are specialists; they feed on invertebrates, which they typically collect on or just below the soil surface. Even with their long curved bills, choughs cannot access the soil through thick vegetation, so grazing along the coastal fringe helps to keep the vegetation structure open and thus accessible.
Unfertilised grass fields, stubble fields and areas of exposed cliff slopes are all part of a good habitat mosaic that provides ideal foraging opportunities for choughs.
An important food supply, especially for young choughs, is the invertebrates found in decomposing cowpats. Some chemicals used in worming treatments for cattle contain avermectins, which render cowpats sterile and useless for choughs. Alternative wormers are available, or treated animals can be put onto fields that choughs do not use.
Farmers are very supportive and want to help choughs return to their former haunts and an increasing network of coastal sites is being grazed around Cornwall's coast. Grazing is not just good for choughs; it helps butterflies, plants and insects too.
If you farm along the coast in the southwest and would like advice on management or how agri-environment schemes may help birds and other wildlife on your farm, please contact Claire Mucklow, Cornwall Projects Manager for more information using the contact details below.
Contact
Last modified: 03 August 2009