Our archives contain all articles written by members and friends of the Society. Most of the articles will also have been published in our member’s quarterly magazine ‘Birds of Andalucía’. The subjects are mostly related to birds, but other areas of general interest, fauna and flora are also included.
For our member’s convenience the archives have been arranged in indexes so that topics of interest can be found more easily.
Adding to our Archives
We are fortunate to have in our midst a number of members who enjoy producing articles of interest for publication. If you, like them, would care to donate an article for inclusion in our archive’s library, please send your copy by email attachment to the Society (abs.sociedad@gmail.com) clearly stating your name and contact details. We will accredit your name for any published articles on this website or our quarterly magazine. We hope all authors interested in the Society will help to create to this ever improving and growing resource.
All articles appearing on this website © Andalucía Bird Society. All rights reserved.
About Birds
Andalusia is packed full of beautiful towns and mountain villages usually surrounded by a pristine natural habitat and full of old-world romance. The Arab whitewashed hamlets of the south where an enchanting world of Moorish charm awaits visitors who travel ...
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A good a place as any to start with this brief article is to note the name change to both the common and scientific names, so I present to you in all its glory the Western Orphean Warbler Curruca hortensis, ...
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“It seems now we are all in a war zone, we are fighting on so many fronts to conserve and preserve what we have left, and yet this story of the Glossy Ibis should give us all hope that things ...
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Birding Sites
You would be extremely hard pressed to find another area within the whole of Europe as good as Andalucía for birdwatching. Its great diversity of habitats translates into such an array of birds, not to mention other wildlife, that frequent ...
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The Delta Birding Festival is the most prestigious nature event in the Mediterranean and the annual meeting point for ornithologists and naturalists. A festival where you can share your passion for birds and nature, and also to promote their conservation ...
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Within the heartlands of Andalucía, nestling within Malaga Province, is a wilderness of outstanding natural beauty and importance. The Serranía de Ronda is a jewel in the crown of natural Spain and is one of the many spectacular wildernesses of ...
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Comparative Field Guide
Species: Rüppell's Vulture – Gyps rueppellii – Buitre Moteado Polytypic. Nominate rueppellii, Sahel zone south of Sahara from Sénégal east to Sudan and south to East Africa, straggler Egypt. Extralimital: erlangeri, Ethiopia and Somalia. Rare visitor to Spain. Although a ...
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Crested Lark Galerida cristata Cogujada Común Possibly the most widespread and common lark species to be found in Andalucia. Most frequently encountered in lower elevations with more open habitats, often cultivated country. Very common along coastal areas. Heavy in appearance ...
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Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni / Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus The figure, Figure 1, to the left shows an adult male Lesser Kestrel (left) and an adult male Common Kestrel (right). Simple enough to see the difference, but in the field ...
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Conservation
"In order to raise money for the Andalucia Bird Society, we are selling a series of notebooks on Amazon and all the royalties from sales we will donate to ABS to support the fantastic conservation work they do. The notebooks ...
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We are proud, as a Society, to be once again supporting Global Birding for their upcoming 'Global Bird Weekend'. The event for 2021 is in support of Birdlife International's appeal for their project to protect wetlands and migratory birds, an ...
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Montagu's Harrier Project Aguiluzo Cenizo, the Montagu's Harrier project, there has been a 100% increase in the number of protected nests. There are good numbers of chicks in the hacking project, the book on Sacapuntas (a female raised by the ...
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Flowers
This year has been very odd for all of us due to the Covid-19 illness as we all know. Up until March 14th 2020 we were allowed to wander freely in the mountains searching for flowers. We found many Giant ...
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Twelve years ago when we moved to Spain, like all good ornithologists, we set out to feed the birds and entice them within easy viewing distance. We failed miserably. Spanish birds are not attracted by peanut cages, seed feeders or ...
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Back in the UK I had a great interest in the country’s wild orchids and spent quite a lot of time searching for new species and eventually managed to see and photograph all but two species found there at that ...
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Insects
Over the years I have visited the Serranía de Ronda many times through the early spring and summer months in pursuit of my main interest which is butterflies. Hand in hand with this goes the wealth of bird and plant ...
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Almost 80 species of Dragon-Damselfly have been recorded on the Spanish mainland and in Balearic Islands, with a further two or three which are restricted to the Canary Islands. I am going to start-off with the Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) ...
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Moths? Aren’t they all brown and boring? When I first show people some of the moths I have trapped overnight, the first reaction is amazement at the colours, patterns, variety of forms and “resting” positions shown by the moths. I ...
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Interviews
I would like to focus this article from the perspective that 20 years of accumulated experience of working in the Rural Tourism sector in Andalusia has provided me. My role has been to act as a link between the public ...
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Celebrity interview as published in the Summer 2012 Issue of "Birds of Andalucía" PJ: Tim, amazingly we go back 37 years and in all that time I don’t think I ever asked ‘what first got you interested in birds?’ TA: ...
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My Local Patch
September gently passed over my mountains, its balmy days giving leave for many of our familiar summer birds to depart on their southern passage to Africa. Only a few, foolhardy maybe, lingered and perhaps lulled into believing autumn would never ...
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Have you ever had that prickly feeling at the base of your neck, when your hairs stand up and you are in wonder? It is a kind of out of body experience, where your spirit dances with joy and you ...
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I’ve always denied having a birding ‘patch’, but it’s gradually dawned on me that the terrace of my house in Alcala de los Gazules is a patch, albeit an extremely small one. I’m being a little disengenuous here since the ...
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Photography
The Delta Birding Festival is the most prestigious nature event in the Mediterranean and the annual meeting point for ornithologists and naturalists. A festival where you can share your passion for birds and nature, and also to promote their conservation ...
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Before we dive into the complexities of correct exposure of a digital photograph it is perhaps appropriate to discuss how the images are saved in the camera. Most digital cameras offer a choice on the quality and file format to ...
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Introduction I am sure we have all been shown collections of fuzzy photographs taken by amateur photographers. The reasons for these blurred images could stem from a number of causes; the subject may have been moving and the shutter speed ...
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Surveys
On a cold wet winter´s day, what better than to look back to those warm balmy days of summer. It was still dark when I set out on an early June morning to open the nets; Casares was just a ...
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A question often asked of ornithologists is “How long do birds live?” There is no simple answer to the question as survival varies from species to species. An examination of the latest British Trust for Ornithology’s ringing report (Coiffait et ...
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Help discovering the spring The Spring Alive project is a simple birdwatching survey. Thanks to children and adults all around Europe we are able to track the spring arrival every year. Participation is very simple and can be a great ...
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Visit Reports
This account outlines the wildlife adventures of two visitors from Scotland as we explored the birding delights of Andalucia in mid-March 2014. My friend, Lesley Silcock and I hoped to see a wide variety of birds, mammals and other creatures ...
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My mental picture of a Spanish landscape has to include a Corn Bunting on a wire, pouring out his jangling song There are a lot of great things about earning a living working for Bird Watching magazine, but none better ...
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A tale that knows no boundaries A bird shall know neither bounds nor confines of man, remaining a free spirit to brighten our lives, a symbol of peace, fostering friendships for those who share in their joy. Peter Jones We ...
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Various
Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, located on the western tip of the continent, it’s bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and otherwise completely surrounded by Senegal. The Gambia spans an area of 11,295 square km. ...
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‘Flamingos In The Desert’, by ABS member and regular contributor to this magazine Kevin Borman, is a book with a difference. It’s not specifically a bird book - though almost 40 species get a mention in the detailed index and ...
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A request I received on many occasions during the last 20 years of my working life, let me explain [to newer birders] why this is the wrong question! Firstly have a basic understanding of binoculars. There are two ‘styles: the ...
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