Young choughs

I spent today watching the young choughs affectionately known as brownblue and whitebrown.  Catchy names, I know you’ll agree, but I don’t have the job of naming the choughs yet.  As I mentioned in my last post, all of the choughs that grew up in Cornwall have been ringed.  Coincidentally, the rings on these choughs match their names.  Brownblue is the male in this pair.

These guys are young, just two years old.  So this is the first time they’ve looked like they might nest.  They seem to be very close.  After even short spells apart they’ll spend time reassuring each other by being close and occasionally tapping beaks (possibly food is passed between them, but I haven’t been able to see this for sure).  While they’re foraging they’ll occasionally run towards each other and tap their beaks in a fashion that looks very much like they’re kissing.

By the end of today, our lady was spending a little time on her own in the area where we think the nest might be.  At this point our man spent his time calling and generally looking a bit restless.