Canaries Trip Report Highlights

Here are the highlights from Dave Gosney's recent trip to the Canary Islands.

As part of our plan to cover more of the Western Palearctic on Version 5 of our CD-ROM Guide to All the Birds of Europe, we needed to film some of the birds of the Canaries. If you accept the latest decisions on what represents a separate species, there are at least 9 species on the Canaries that don't breed anywhere in the world, except on the Atlantic islands. So, the main priority was to try to film these endemics.

Some of them are relatively easy. Berthelot's Pipit occurs almost everywhere so I filmed them on both Tenerife and Fuerteventura.

The recently-split Canarian Chiffchaff is probably the commonest passerine on Tenerife and Gomera and also occurs where there are trees and bushes on Fuerteventura. Its plumage tones are warmer and browner than the European Chiffchaffs and the song is strikingly different - at times more like a Cetti's Warbler.

Plain Swifts are also easy to see but of course they're much harder to film. There is some controversy over whether some of the swifts in Morocco are this species. They look so much like Common Swift that it's hardly surprising the experts can't decide. However, I reckon (contrary to what it says in the Collins Guide) that it should be possible to separate them by call - Plain Swifts sound gentler and less 'menacing', as if they are whistling rather than screeching.

Of course, the Canaries are the best place to find Canaries. They too are widespread, especially on Tenerife where their light, twinkling calls (very similar to Citril Finch) are often heard. However, it's not always easy to get good views of them on the ground. I found that the car park at Las Lajas was the easiest place to see them.

The main reason for visiting that car park was to film another endemic, the Blue Chaffinch, which, to be honest, you simply can't miss there.

It's also a good spot for two species which have distinctive Canary Islands races. The Great Spotted Woodpecker has much greyer underparts than birds in Europe…

…and the Blue Tit is blacker on the head and has completely dark wings with no wing-bars This has already been claimed to be a separate species.

By far the most difficult endemics to film are the birds of the laurel forests. Despite spending two whole days in the woodlands around Erjos, I failed to film any of the Tenerife Kinglets or the Bolle's Pigeons. The Kinglets stayed buried in the dense canopy, only rarely giving views of their distinctive head pattern. The Pigeons were seen on many occasions but they are so quick it's like trying to film a shooting star. I had another go at the laurel forests by visiting Gomera for a day. Neither the Kinglet or the Bolle's Pigeon were any more obliging but I did manage to snatch some footage of a White-tailed Pigeon as it skimmed over the trees.

One reason for visiting Gomera is to use the ferry journey as a chance to get some seabirds. I did see two Little Shearwaters and a Bulwer's Petrel but the only seabirds that were close enough to film were Cory's Shearwaters.

Having filmed 6 of the 8 endemics on Tenerife, the other endemic had to be searched for on Fuerteventura, the only place in the world where the Canarian Chat (or Fuerteventura Chat) occurs. I'd heard that numbers of this threatened bird had declined recently so I was alarmed when I checked the 'best site on the island' and failed to find any. I then tried another site and had none there either. Thankfully there was another site, recommended in my book, and it was here that I found a pair, one of which gave good views.

Most of Fuerteventura is desert, in which the regular species include Lesser Short-toed Lark and Trumpeter Finch – both of which gave good views near Los Molinos.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was the time I spent looking for Houbara Bustards. I visited the site described in my book where I'd previously seen up to 13 birds and, sure enough, birds came down from the desert to the area where I was waiting in my hire car. On the first evening 4 birds came so close to the car that I couldn't set the camera up without disturbing them. I therefore returned earlier on the following evening and watched 9 birds walk to the favoured area before they wandered close enough to be filmed. Following suggestions that the 'Houbaras' in Israel are of a different species (MacQueen's Bustard), this must be the best site in the world for seeing this bird.

All these images can be brought to life by downloading the clips themselves from our footage library. You'll then be able to watch the birds in action or view the images frame by frame any time you like.