Spanish biodiversity has56 new additions of bird species, which have just been incorporated into the latest “List of birds in Spain” prepared by SEO / BirdLife. This catalog, which updates the previous one from 2005, confirms the growth of the Spanish avifauna, mainly due to modern genetic studies, the increase in wandering or “rare” birds, the greater number of observers in the field and the acclimatization of foreign species.
A) Yes,the new genetic studiesthey have allowed some birds previously considered “varieties” to be differentiated today as “species”, as in the case of the Canary tit or the Iberian longtail. There are also forms that change their name thanks to thetaxonomic affinity studiesbetween them. This is the case of the separation of the old genus of chickadees and blue tit (Parus) into five: that of the great tit; that of the blue tit that are now (the common) and (the canary); that of the Capuchins and, apart, that of the Garrapino Chickadee and that of the Marsh.
To this is added that other scientific studies, such as those that implytagging birds with satellite tracking techniques or isotope analysis, have also added new species to the list. For example, a Hungarian saker falcon tagged with a satellite transmitter traveled through Spain and arrived in Africa in 2009, demonstrating that not all observations of this species are escaped falconry birds, but could include natural wanderers.
On the other hand, in recent years the homologated citations of wandering or “rare” birds have increased, totaling 206 species, 36% of the list. Some cases correspond to species that occasionally arrive in our country pushed by extreme meteorological phenomena such as hurricanes, polar cold waves or African heat. This is due, on the one hand, to the strategic situation of theIberian Peninsula, at a crossroads between routes and areas where migrants who come and go from Europe to Africa, but also wanderers from Asia or North America converge. In addition, the Canary and Balearic archipelagos are a source of addition for those species that reach the islands on their marine journeys. The African white-backed vulture, the North American pipit, the red-legged booby or the black-winged bird, which are very rare in the European context, are some examples.
Acclimated exotics
Finally, introduced species or those of other latitudes -15 in total- contribute to this list, which either due to the good weather or because they come from more northern countries, have settled here, in the case of the Nile goose . Six of these species are naturalized introductions such as pheasant, Kramer’s and Argentine parrots, or even small cage birds capable of surviving in the wild, such as the Japanese nightingale, the Senegalese coral beak or the red Bengali. Another notable case is a domestic species that has established itself in freedom in some parts of the country, the rosigrís turtle dove.
Among these introduced species, the case that presents the most variations is that of the populations already naturalized and established in other European countries that arrive here associated with the natural movements of wild birds. This is the case of seven species already integrated into our fauna: the black swan, the small goose, the Canadian goose, the Nile goose, the Mandarin duck, the cinnamon malvasia and the sacred ibis. These last two cause serious conservation problems in Europe because they hybridize with native species, which makes it necessary to carry out control and management actions to prevent their expansion.
