Established Exotics (1 Viewer)

Hi all,

I am refering to an old thread from 2009 where candidates for category C had been discussed. Anything new since than.

Travelling to Portugal at the end of the month I am wondering whether actual observations are known from
- Lonchura malacca (Black-headed Munia)
- Lonchura punctulata (Scaly-breasted Munia)
- Vidua Macroura (Pin-tailed Whydah)

Can someone provide me information where I should look for those species?

Cheers, Matthias

(PS: Does a platform for exchange of sightings in Portugal exist?)

Hi Matthias,
Lonchura malacca (Black-headed Munia)
It’s a category C in Portugal, but suffered a population crash due to illegal trapping for the pet trade, and several cold winters, and its basically extinct, no reliably sighting in the last 2 years. I never see the species, despite several attempts in the old spots…

-Lonchura punctulata (Scaly-breasted Munia)
It’s not in C category, and due to the debacle of the Black-headed Munia ben considered C category and after a few years disappear is unlikely that further exotics species get “promoted” to C category .
In any case the population of Lonchura punctulata seems stable in same areas of the Sado, manly in Alcaçer do Sal region

Vidua Macroura (Pin-tailed Whydah)
Occur in the Aveiro area, in several places:
Salreu
Tabueira
Forca
Best bet is probably Salreu, I suggest to ask for information in this forum:

http://www.avesdeportugal.info/links.html

The forum is in Portuguese but you can post in English.

There are several platforms for post bird observations, and that is the problem, the information is very fragmented, and some species like de Vidua are really under the radar…

You can try to search:
Ebird
And
http://birdlaa5.memset.net/worldbirds/portugal.php

you can also search the flick group :

http://www.flickr.com/groups/aves_de_portugal/
nice photos of Viduas.