David, from Canada, and Irina, from Ukrainia, visited Navarra in late August this summer. It was their first time in the Western Pyrenees area and they wanted to bird visiting different type of habitats and birding spots, so we designe dan itinerary that took us to high mountains, gorges, forests, mediterranean scrubland, steppes and wetlands.

2018 has been a quite dry year and this has their consecuences in birds. There’s fewer food as the plants didn’t grew so much as other years and didn’t produce as many seeds as they used to, this means fewer invertebrates and birds have noticed it. This year has become a hard year for birds and also for birders that want to find them. So to go out in search of them was a tough challenge; nota ll the birds we wanted to find were found, but we managed to see several interesting species… some of them even ‘lifers’ for our guests.

Here is the list of species (74) we saw in the two days they came to Navarra:

Common Quail – Coturnix coturnix

European Honey Buzzard – Pernis apivorus

Egyptian Vulture – Neophron percnopterus

Griffon Vulture – Gyps fulvus

Short-toed Eagle – Circaetus gallicus

Eurasian Sparrowhawk – Accipiter nisus

Red Kite – Milvus milvus

Black Kite – Milvus migrans

Hen Harrier – Circus cyaneus

Montagu’s Harrier – Circus pygargus

Common Buzzard – Buteo buteo

Booted Eagle – Hieraaetus pennatus

Common Kestrel – Falco tinnunculus

Great Bustard – Otis tarda

Great Spotted Woodpecker – Dendrocopos major

European Turtle Dove – Streptopelia turtur

Common Woodpigeon – Columba palumbus

Rock Pigeon – Columba livia

European Bee-eater – Merops apiaster

Red-billed Chough – Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax

Alpine Chough – Pyrrhocorax graculus

Eurasian Jay – Garrulus glandarius

Eurasian Jackdaw – Corvus monedula

Carrion Crow – Corvus corone

Common Raven – Corvus corax

Woodchat Shrike – Lanius senator

Crested Lark – Galerida cristata

Calandra Lark – Melanocorypha calandra

Eurasian Skylark – Alauda arvensis

Sand Martin – Riparia riparia

Eurasian Crag Martin – Ptyonoprogne rupestris

Barn Swallow – Hirundo rustica

Common House Martin – Delichon urbicum

Coal Tit – Periparus ater

Crested Tit – Lophophanes cristatus

Great Tit – Parus major

Marsh Tit – Poecile palustris

Long-tailed Tit – Aegithalos caudatus

European Nuthatch – Sitta europea

Short-toed Treecreeper – Certhia brachydactyla

Eurasian Wren – Troglodytes troglodytes

Zitting Cisticola – Cisticola juncidis

Cetti’s Warbler – Cettia cetti

Willow Warbler – Phylloscopus trochilus

Common Chiffchaff – Phylloscopus collybita

Iberian Chiffchaff – Phylloscopus ibericus

Eurasian Blackcap – Sylvia atricapilla

Garden Warbler – Sylvia borin

Sardinian Warbler – Sylvia melanocephala

European Robin – Erithacus rubecula

Spotted Flycatcher – Muscicapa striata

European Pied Flycatcher – Ficedula hypoleuca

Common Redstart – Phoenicurus phoenicurus

Black Redstart – Phoenicurus ochruros

Whinchat – Saxicola rubetra

European Stonechat – Saxicola rubicola

Blue Rock-Thrush – Monticola solitarius

Eurasian Blackbird – Turdus merula

Mistle Thrush – Turdus viscivorus

Dunnock – Prunella modularis

Yellow Wagtail – Motacilla flava

Grey Wagtail – Motacilla cinerea

White Wagtail – Motacilla alba

Water Pipit – Anthus spinoletta

Spotless Starling – Sturnus unicolor

Cirl Bunting – Emberiza cirlus

Common Chaffinch – Fringilla coelebs

Eurasian Linnet – Linaria cannabina

Common Crossbill – Loxia curvirostra

European Serin – Serinus serinus

European Greenfinch – Chloris chloris

Citril Finch – Carduelis citrinella 

Eurasian Goldfinch – Carduelis carduelis

House Sparrow – Passer domesticus

A finales del pasado agosto estuvimos guiando a David, de Canadá, y a Irina, de Ucrania. Era su primera visita a nuestra zona y, a pesar de haber sido un año muy seco que ha hecho escasear a algunas especies de aves, pudimos ver muchas otras de lo más interesantes, incluyendo avutarda, mosquitero ibérico y verderón serrano, entre otros.