Paradise Park's Choughs flying free over Dover

Director of Paradise Park Cornwall, Alison Hales explains the history of chough reintroductions and successful progress over recent decades including their work with Wildwood Trust and Kent Wildlife Trust to reintroduce them in Kent.

The red-billed Choughs being released near Dover come from a well-established group at Paradise Park in Cornwall as part of their ‘Operation Chough’ project.

Operation Chough was established in 1987, and over the decades the project has achieved great successes in breeding and research and an initial release in Cornwall. With that experience we were able to implement changes to the design of nest boxes and take a new approach to feeding during the breeding season, resulting in many more birds being bred at Paradise Park."

In 2008 a live webcam was introduced from our seclusion aviaries, a quiet location ideal for breeding red-billed Choughs. Some of the cameras have tiny lights inside the nest box and at night they switch to infra-red so the birds can be seen roosting, incubating eggs or brooding chicks 24 hours a day. As well as images, there is also sound from the nests. We find this helpful to understand if the adults are doing their ‘feeding call’. This call is needed early on as the chicks don’t open their eyes for a few days and need an audible signal to know that it is the right time to open their mouths for food.

During the breeding season the chicks are constantly monitored by camera, and if necessary, weighed and given supplementary feed or veterinary care. If a nest needs to be accessed for this, the adult birds are encouraged to stay out of the way using positive reinforcement methods. The webcam is available to view every year on the Paradise Park website from late March through to early June.

Ray Hales at Operation Chough HQ bending over desk and equipment © M Turton

In 2010 we partnered with the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust with the aim of breeding and releasing choughs in Jersey, where they had been extinct for over 100 years. Several years of breeding and research lead to the first release on Jersey in 2013. The first wild chick was fledged in 2015, both parents being birds from Paradise Park. This was the first wild, red-billed Chough to be hatched in Jersey for a century and marked a significant step in the re-establishment of the species in the Channel Islands where there is now a population of about 40 birds.

That same year, the first meetings were held with Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust to discuss the formation of a project to re-establish the chough in Kent where it had been absent for 200 years. A breeding pair went on loan from Paradise Park to Wildwood and in 2017 chough chicks hatched in Kent for the first time in over 150 years. A meeting at Dover Castle in 2019 further cemented the partnership and formed strategies for releases. The work continued over the next couple of years, with five new purpose-built chough breeding aviaries funded by the Kent project were built in early 2023. The breeding pairs were put in place from their winter flocking aviary on Valentine’s Day, and this culminated in twelve chicks fledging.

Chough chicks ready to be weighed while Paradise Park Director Alison distracts adult birds © R Hales

In mid-May Liz Corry and Laura Gardner from the Wildwood Trust came down to take four chicks for the upcoming release in Kent. The four birds were about a week old and were taken to be creche reared with other chicks, as a large family group. This meant the chicks, while steady around people, would be much less likely to become imprinted on their adopted human parents. It would also make the chicks suitable for very early training for the planned release.

Four-week-old chicks ready to move to Kent © R Hales

Almost all of the eggs laid were shown to be fertile when checked, which is a good indication of the health of our flock at Paradise Park – now approaching some fifty birds.

The cameras allow for insights into chough behaviour which wouldn’t otherwise be seen.

Red-billed chough female at Paradise Park in Hayle, Cornwall laying an egg while the male waits patiently just outside the nest

We are really looking forward to seeing these fabulous birds flying over the white cliffs of Dover as they once did.

More young birds bred by the dedicated team at Paradise Park will be making the journey from Cornwall to Kent as releases will continue for a minimum of five years.

Chough chick learning that food is not always available from mum & dad © Ali Hales

The red-billed Chough is a sedentary species, returning them to Kent will help to join up the isolated UK populations. We are hoping to create further partnerships with the aim of finding release locations along the South coast and continue the return of the chough to England.

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