CANARY ISLANDS – Endemics and the rare African Houbara

PRICE INFORMATION

Birdquest Inclusions: Our tour prices include transportation, accommodations, meals and entrance fees.

We also include all tipping for accommodation/restaurant staff.

Deposit: 20% of the total tour price. Our office will let you know what deposit amount is due, in order to confirm your booking, following receipt of your online booking form.

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The single supplement will not apply if you indicate on booking that you prefer to share a room and there is a room-mate of the same sex available.

This tour is priced in Euros. Amounts shown in other currencies are indicative.

CANARY ISLANDS BIRDING TOUR: DETAILED ITINERARY

Canary Islands: Day 1

Our tour will begin this evening on Fuerteventura, one of the easternmost Canary Islands, where we will stay for two nights.

Canary Islands: Day 2

Fuerteventura is the second-largest island in the Canary Islands group. The North African coast is a mere 110 kilometres (66 miles) away, and consequently, the climate is very dry (even sandstorms are by no means exceptional). During the summer months, the scorching Harmatan sometimes blows straight from the heart of the Sahara Desert.

Tectonic activity has shaped the landscape here as well, and the looming presence of extinct volcanoes is a telltale reminder of past turmoil. Small white villages fringed with palm trees and hedges of prickly pears enhance the impression that we might be in the North African Maghreb. Holiday villages have mushroomed along the wide white beaches, but we will spend most of our time exploring the nearly deserted hinterland.

Fuerteventura is the only place in the world where the dainty Canary Islands (or Fuerteventura) Stonechat occurs. Looking rather like a cross between a European Stonechat and a Whinchat (although which species it evolved from remains uncertain), this attractive little bird mainly inhabits the dry rocky gorges, known locally as barrancos, but it can also be found wherever dry scrub offers a suitable nesting site. Like most chats, they perch conspicuously out in the open and particularly favour the peculiar-looking euphorbias.

The island is also well known for its healthy population of African Houbaras (or Houbara Bustards), a species which is now threatened with extinction by hunting pressure across most of its range. Luckily, Arab falconers are not allowed to slaughter these magnificent creatures here, so their future prospects look quite hopeful. With the splitting off of the eastern form macqueenii, found from Sinai eastwards, as Asian Houbara (or Macqueen’s Bustard), and faced with the difficulty in seeing this declining and vulnerable species in North Africa, seeing the ‘real’ Houbara Bustard increasingly means going to Fuerteventura.

Elegant but well-camouflaged Cream-coloured Coursers and large-eyed Eurasian Stonecurlews share the same habitat, and we may well encounter small numbers of Black-bellied Sandgrouse. Small flocks of Trumpeter Finches forage in the most desolate areas, often accompanied by Mediterranean Short-toed Larks and the ubiquitous Macaronesian-endemic Berthelot’s Pipit.

Hedges of introduced agave hold Spectacled Warblers and offer hiding places for Barbary Partridges, whilst rock walls provide shelter for Barbary Ground Squirrels. Egyptian Vultures soar over the dry plains, while Great Grey Shrikes perch prominently on wires or tall euphorbia bushes. The endemic canariensis subspecies of the Northern Raven looks surprisingly small, and its call sounds quite different from that of North European birds.

Along the coast we should see the charismatic Red-billed Tropicbird, a species that has colonised the Canary Islands only in recent times.

Canary Islands: Day 3

After some final birding on Fuerteventura, we will fly across to Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria for an overnight stay.

Our major target on Gran Canaria is the rare Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch, endemic to just this island.

Canary Islands: Day 4

We will have some more time on Gran Canaria before taking a short flight to the island of Tenerife for a two-night stay.

Canary Islands: Day 5

Tenerife, with its peculiar triangular shape, is the largest of the Canary Islands and is dominated by the great volcanic Pico de Teide (3,718m or 12,199ft), the highest mountain in Spain.

Tenerife’s varied landscapes reflect its volcanic origins. Great expanses of crinkled black lava fields, beaches of black and grey sand and the typical conical volcano shape of the mighty Teide speak for themselves. A trip across the sparsely vegetated high plateau (in fact, an old crater) with its bizarrely crafted rock formations and twisted lava slabs is not unlike a voyage across the surface of the moon.

Climatic differences are quite marked between the northern and southern parts of Tenerife as the northeast trade winds bring more rain to the frequently cloud-wreathed north-facing slopes, whereas the south is usually drier, sunnier and windier.

Tenerife is characterised by six different types of vegetation, but to birdwatchers, the laurel forests of the northern slopes are the most interesting habitat. Tree heaths and several endemic species of evergreen dwarf trees, up to 10m tall, create a very special kind of primaeval forest on the moist, north-facing slopes of the island that are the headquarters of the endemic Laurel Pigeon and Bolle’s Pigeon. Most of the original forest has been cleared, and it is only in the surviving patches on the steeper slopes and more inaccessible valleys that the pigeons can still be found. These shy denizens of the woods can best be observed from vantage points from which one can keep an eye on the tree tops down below.

The Atlantic Canary, symbol of the islands and a Macaronesia endemic, can be found here and in most other habitats, usually in small flocks. Renowned for their pretty song, they were first captured and exported to Europe as cage birds in the 15th century.

Rocky crags provide breeding habitat for the distinctive local race of the Rock Dove, and dense scrub harbours Sardinian Warblers. We may also encounter the dashing Barbary Falcon.

Above 800m we enter open forest of the endemic Canary Islands Pine and the favourite habitat of the endemic Blue (or Canary Islands) Chaffinch. This beautiful dusky-blue finch forages in much the same way as the well-known Common Chaffinch, which is replaced here by the strikingly different-looking endemic Canary Islands Chaffinch.

The local chiffchaffs, with their distinctive song, have now been split as Canary Islands Chiffchaff.

The teneriffae race of the (North) African Blue Tit often acts rather like a treecreeper. For a time, Canarian birds were split as an endemic species.

The distinctive local Regulus was for a time considered a good species, Canary Islands Kinglet, after a century of prevarication as to whether it was a race of the Goldcrest or of the Firecrest, but it is now back to being a race of the Goldcrest!

The local robins were, for a time, split by some as Canary Islands (or Tenerife) Robin and

Endemic races of Common Buzzard, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Blackcap are also found here.

The barren, desert-like plains of southern Tenerife are characterised by extensive stands of euphorbias, which look almost like cacti and make one feel as though one were in Arizona or New Mexico. (Small wonder then that this has been a frequent location for the shooting of western films!) Spectacled Warbler and the uncommon Rock Sparrow also prefer this desolate habitat. Spanish Sparrows are ubiquitous in the lowlands, whilst Yellow-legged Gulls of the form atlantis are widely distributed along the coast. Overhead, loud screams betray the presence of the near-endemic Plain Swift.

Day 6

After a last morning on Tenerife, our tour ends this afternoon.