The red-billed chough's food consists largely of insects, spiders and other invertebrates taken from the ground, with ants probably being the most significant item. The Central Asian subspecies P. p. centralis will perch on the backs of wild or domesticated mammals to feed on parasites. Although invertebrates make up most of the chough's diet, it will eat vegetable matter including fallen grain, and in the Himalayas has been reported as damaging barley crops by breaking off the ripening heads to extract the corn. In the Himalayas, they form large flocks in winter.