The rare birds of Tenerife
Nature Notes: Martin Walters takes on a trip the Canary Islands.
Tenerife is an extraordinary volcanic island, and a popular tourist destination with reliably warm sunny weather all year round, depending on which part of the island you visit.
It also has fascinating wildlife with many unique species of plants and birds. In fact, 40 per cent of the plants and animals there are endemic. We returned recently from a trip, partly to escape the dreary winter weather here but also to try and see some of the exotic wildlife.
For a small island, the variety of habitats and microclimates is remarkable. The south and west has most of the major tourist developments with large hotels and safe sandy beaches and is blessed with mild conditions and reliable sunshine.
The north and north-east is affected by regular cloud and mists rolling in from the sea, while the south-eastern coast is mainly sunny and arid, but is swept by almost constant breezes that discourage tree growth and result in natural vegetation that is dominated by low-growing, drought-tolerant shrubs.
At the centre of the island rises the pride of Tenerife, El Teide, the famous dormant volcano, and amazingly, at 3,718m, the highest mountain in the whole of Spain. The slopes around El Teide are mostly bare as it takes many years for plants to establish themselves on the inhospitable lava.
I didn’t have to wait very long for the first interesting bird to appear. In the bushes near our holiday apartment, I spotted a small bird flitting about, no doubt searching for insects and spiders. It was very like a whitethroat, but smaller and more brightly coloured – a spectacled warbler. This dainty warbler is a speciality of the southern Mediterranean and North Africa and is also a very rare vagrant to Britain. The last one I had seen was near Gun Hill in Norfolk, in the summer of 2014. It was surrounded by twitchers with cameras and telescopes (I would never have seen it otherwise!). That lone male had built two nests and sang regularly, trying in vain to attract a mate.
A few days later another special bird landed close by. This time a southern grey shrike, another species characteristic of the dry scrub of the lowlands and hill country, areas often dominated by woody species of spurge (Euphorbia). One of the commoner birds of such sites has a limited range, being found only in the Canary Islands and Madeira: Berthelot’s pipit, another dainty species, on Tenerife mostly associated with dry, semi-desert habitats.
Wherever there are trees and gardens you are likely to see and hear two more of the island’s special birds: canary, and Canary Islands chiffchaff. The canary is the wild ancestor of the popular cage bird. It is mainly green and yellow and, like its domestic descendants, sings a pleasant jumble of musical trills. Although the Canary Islands chiffchaff looks rather like our own version, its song is quite different, being much more staccato and somewhat reminiscent of that of Cetti’s warbler.
The local endemic birds are high on the list for visiting birdwatchers. These include the blue chaffinch and two species of pigeon, each associated with certain special habitats.
The woods of Canary Pine, another endemic plant, are the habitat of the blue chaffinch, the local subspecies of great spotted woodpecker, and the Tenerife blue tit, the latter even more brightly coloured than our familiar garden bird. The Canary great spotted woodpecker has a long bill and is a specialist feeder on the large female cones of the Canary Pine.
One day we drove up into the hills in the north-east to admire the remarkable laurel forests that clothe the slopes. These damp woods are often bathed in mist and have developed their own special flora.
They are home to two related species of pigeon: Bolle’s pigeon and laurel (white-tailed) pigeon. These are notoriously secretive and shy birds and despite scouring the treetops we saw neither, but the views over the forests were well worth the trip.
