RFI - Blue Chaffinch on Gran Canaria (1 Viewer)

[tmurray]

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone has any advice on seeing/finding Blue Chaffinch on Gran Canaria?
There seems to be little available info on them. I appreciate they are far far easier on Tenerife, but we are going to Gran Canaria, and while its not a birding trip I wouild to try see some birds too..

Thanks,

Tony

 

[Perry Smale]

According to Birds of the Atlantic Islands by Tony Clarke this species is on the verge of extinction on Gran Canaria and you need to contact Francisco del Campo ([email protected]) to arrange a permit to enter the reserve where it is found, while in the older A Birdwatcher's Guide to The Canary Islands the area where they occur is named as Pajonales. Hope this helps.

 

[tmurray]

THanks Perry, posted RFI on Infomation Wanted thread too, and got similar replies there, have tried to contact Francisco del Campo too.......

 

[bluechaffinch]

A recent paper on the Tenerife BC by Gardia-del-Rey et al (2009) states that the two former strongholds of polatzeki on GC were Inagua and Tamadaba. The population at Tamadaba is now gone and the Inagua site suffered devastating fires and was effectively rendered useless as BC habitat. An optimistic population estimate for GC is 200 birds.

Think it's fair to say that this subspecies is in a grim situation and may well already be well on its way to biological extinction.

Any records you gather of this bird if you're lucky enough to see it would be very useful indeed.