teodelina's Identifications

Friend sent me a photo of some Corvids who have a magnificent view at the top of the Zugspitze, in the German Alps. Zugspitze is the highest mountain in Germany at 2,962m (9,718 ft) above sea level.

Yellow-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) A.k.a. Alpine Chough, is a Corvid in the Corvidae family, "one of only two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax. Its two subspecies breed in high mountains from Spain eastwards through southern Europe and North Africa to Central Asia and Nepal, and it may nest at a higher altitude than any other bird. The eggs have adaptations to the thin atmosphere that improve oxygen take-up and reduce water loss. This bird has glossy black plumage, a yellow beak, 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. It builds a lined stick nest and lays three to five brown-blotched whitish eggs. It feeds, usually in flocks, on short grazed grassland, taking mainly invertebrate prey in summer and fruit in winter; it will readily approach tourist sites to find supplementary food." https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/8350-Pyrrhocorax-graculus

Ebird with species description, range map and sound recordings: https://ebird.org/species/yebcho1/ and https://ebird.org/explore

Xeno-canto Bird songs, sound recordings, and species range map: https://xeno-canto.org/species/Pyrrhocorax-graculus and https://xeno-canto.org/species/Pyrrhocorax-graculus

Merlin Bird ID (great app available for Iphones) by The Cornell Lab (Bird ID help for 8,500+ species) https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/

Comprehensive Feather I.D. tools and more: https://foundfeathers.org/resources/

Found Feathers (Worldwide): https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas/idtool.php