Bird of the Autumn - The Results

Adding your comments in this blog, facebook and by email gave a clear winner - the Bluethroat. Thank you all for giving your views!

Second place went to Cory's Shearwater

Barbary Partridge (above) and Wheatear (below) took joint third.

The Charming Goldfinch

The Goldfinch is an abundant resident bird whose numbers are largely augmented in the region of the Strait of Gibraltar during migration and in the winter. Its beauty and colour matches, in my opinion, that of many tropical passerines.

Goldfinches are the second most numerous passerine migrant crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. Only the Swallow is more abundant. The migration is most pronounced in the autumn when tens of thousands arrive in late October and early November, many crossing south to spend the winter months in Morocco. 

But many remain on the northern shore of the Strait where they are a dominant component of the bird community of pastures where they feed largely on the seeds of thistles. Here their density averages around 7 birds per hectare, giving a clear indication that the region is a main wintering area.

Most of the wintering Goldfinches come from western Europe, principally France, the British Isles, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland but a small contingent comes from further east. These are birds from Russia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Yugoslavia. 

Their long bills are specialised for probing into thistle heads from which they can extract the most difficult of seeds, inaccessible to most other finches (above and below).

Come March, these birds will join others coming from Morocco to return back to their breeding grounds, leaving the local breeding birds behind. The phenomenon of the Goldfinch migration and wintering in the Strait of Gibraltar is another of those hidden secrets that this rich land reveals to those who venture into the fields of places like La Janda...

Bird of the Autumn

With the end of the autumn I thought it might be fun to pick the top three birds of the past season, just like we did for the spring. So here I am posting 25 birds in alphabetical order. Why not have some fun with me and select your top three? Just put your favourites numbered 1, 2 and 3 in the comments section (or on facebook) and we can see which species win. Here they go:

Azure-winged Magpie

Barbary Partridge

Barn Owl

Bluethroat

Booted Eagle

Black-winged Kite

Cattle Egret

Cetti's Warbler

Common Sandpiper

Cory's Shearwater

Egyptian Vulture

Fan-tailed Warbler

Gannet

Greater Flamingo

Griffon Vulture

Little Egret

Meadow Pipit

Pallid Swift

Peregrine Falcon

Red-rumped Swallow

Sparrowhawk

Spotless Starling

Squacco Heron

Wheatear

White Wagtail

 

With the Ring Ouzels

Ring Ouzels pass through our area but many stay for the winter, usually in localised spots on the sierras. They choose open habitats, with scattered shrubs, pasture and rocks, with cliffs close by. The karstic (limestone) mountains of the Serrania de Ronda are a favourite for these birds.

Ring Ouzel winter habitat

This habitat is shared with a diversity of other birds, including Rock Bunting, Black Wheatear, Rock Sparrow and the Griffon Vultures which watch proceedings from their cliff ledges or the sky.

The ouzels seem to be fixed on the fruiting hawthorns which must provide a large proportion of the winter diet.

Hawthorn fruit with Mistletoe, typical view for a wintering Ring Ouzel

Numbers vary from site to site. In this one around 20 birds have settled for now. We will keep an eye out for them as the winter progresses...