Why we love the chough, and its soap opera life | Patrick Barkham

The chough had once vanished from England, but since 2002 there has been a growing colony of these fascinating birds in Cornwall

The dawn chorus is deafening in my neck of the woods at the moment. The blackbirds are like loquacious honey-voiced DJs and the thrush is gloriously strident, but I've never heard two birds converse quite like a pair of choughs. Perhaps this is because these charismatic coastal-dwelling crows, with curved blood-red beaks, pair for life - although I've seen plenty of long-married human couples with far less conversation.

Choughs vanished from England - eradicated by persecution and habitat loss - in the early 1970s but in 2001 a breeding pair unexpectedly flew in from Ireland and recolonised their old stronghold of Cornwall. This year, they are thriving, with a record 12 breeding pairs in the county, up from seven last summer.

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