Both Pyrrhocorax species have extensive geographical ranges and large populations; neither is thought to approach the thresholds for the global population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations), and they are therefore evaluated as being of Least Concern.
However, some populations, particularly on islands such as Corsica and La Palma are small and isolated.

Both choughs occupied more extensive ranges in the past, reaching to more southerly and lower altitude areas than at present, with the Alpine chough breeding in Europe as far south as southern Italy, and both the decline and range fragmentation continue.
Red-billed choughs have lost ground in most of Europe, and Alpine choughs have lost many breeding sites in the east of the continent.
In the Canary Islands, the red-billed chough is now extinct on two of the islands on which it formerly bred, and the Alpine was lost from the archipelago altogether.

The causes of the decline include the fragmentation and loss of open grasslands to scrub or human activities such as the construction of ski resorts, and a longer-term threat comes from global warming which would cause the species' preferred Alpine climate zone to shift to higher, more restricted areas, or locally to disappear entirely.

The red-billed chough, which breeds at lower levels, has been more affected by human activity, and the declines away from its main Alpine breeding areas have seen it categorised as "vulnerable" in Europe.
Only in Spain is it still common, and it has recently expanded its range in that country by nesting in old buildings in areas close to its traditional mountain breeding sites.
Both Pyrrhocorax species have extensive geographical ranges and large populations; neither is thought to approach the thresholds for the global population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations), and they are therefore evaluated as being of Least Concern. However, some populations, particularly on islands such as Corsica and La Palma are small and isolated.
Both choughs occupied more extensive ranges in the past, reaching to more southerly and lower altitude areas than at present, with the Alpine chough breeding in Europe as far south as southern Italy, and both the decline and range fragmentation continue. Red-billed choughs have lost ground in most of Europe, and Alpine choughs have lost many breeding sites in the east of the continent. In the Canary Islands, the red-billed chough is now extinct on two of the islands on which it formerly bred, and the Alpine was lost from the archipelago altogether.
The causes of the decline include the fragmentation and loss of open grasslands to scrub or human activities such as the construction of ski resorts, and a longer-term threat comes from global warming which would cause the species' preferred Alpine climate zone to shift to higher, more restricted areas, or locally to disappear entirely.
The red-billed chough, which breeds at lower levels, has been more affected by human activity, and the declines away from its main Alpine breeding areas have seen it categorised as "vulnerable" in Europe. Only in Spain is it still common, and it has recently expanded its range in that country by nesting in old buildings in areas close to its traditional mountain breeding sites.
Chough