The Himalayas, is a mountain range which separates the Great Indian Plains from the Tibetan Plateau. This range is home to nine of the ten highest peaks on the Earth, including the highest, Mount Everest. The abrupt rise of the Himalayan Mountains from less than 500 meters to more than 8,000 meters in a few hundred kilometers has resulted in a huge diversity of flora and fauna. Nearly 1000 birds have been recorded in the Himalayas of which 15 species are fully endemic.
The Alpine chough or yellow-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) is a bird in the crow family. It has glossy black plumage, yellow bill, red legs, and distinctive calls, it has a buoyant acrobatic flight with widely spread flight feathers. The Alpine chough pairs for life and displays fidelity to its breeding site, which is usually a cave or crevice in a cliff face. This is a high-altitude species normally breeding between 3,500-5,000 m (11,500-16,400ft) in the Himalayas.
IUCN Status: Least Concern (LC)