You can’t go to a foreign country and not go birding. With a full week in Andalusia in southern Spain, poor Christina was bound to get dragged off birding. Shockingly, this was not a birding trip. We just wanted to go see the sights and mostly stick to the cities. After flying to Madrid we immediately took a train to Seville, then Malaga, then Granada before flying out of Madrid. We did no birding in Seville, but walking around the city I was able to ID a Black Redstart and a few others that we would see later on like Great Tit, European Robin, and European Blackbird.
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| Eureopean Goldfinch |
One city that caught my attention during the stages was Málaga, a beach city along the Mediterranean. The home of Pablo Picasso, it had a museum of his work and a cool cathedral, but it also had one of the better, if not the best, urban birding sites in Spain: Parque del Guadalhorce. It’s worth mentioning we did this trip without renting a car, which gave us limited options.
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| European Stonechat |
The park is at the mouth of the Guadalhorce River as it empties into the Mediterranean. It’s a small protected area home to the endangered White-headed Duck. It may be small, but it packs a serious punch.
Getting here is tricky by cab, so we went to the stadium by the park and walked from there. The park itself is connected to a larger trail that is popular by runners and bikers, but walking this paved trail is very productive.
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| White Wagtail |
We were greeted by Common Moorhens and Black-winged Stilts, and despite very windy conditions we were still able to have a very productive day. White Wagtails kept us entertained along the canal, and a large bird with its head in the water caught our attention. I initially thought it was Eurasian Spoonbill, but it was even better. It was a Greater Flamingo! Yes, you can find native flamingos in Europe!
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| Greater Flamingo |
Birds kept rolling in like the stunning European Stonechat, some fast gliding European Crag Martins, and skulking Common Chiffchaffs. We also had a Crested Lark, and a flock of European Siskins. All of this was before we even got to the main park!
Before walking into the park we startled a flock of European Goldfinches, a big target of mine. Once we got in we made our way to a blind that doubled as a wind tunnel. In the howling wind we scanned the pond and got excited to see Little Grebe and European Coot, which marks the first time in years that I’ve been hyped to see a coot. But my main target was sitting in the back: White-headed Duck! It’s an endangered species, which adds to the experience.
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| White-headed Duck |
There’s a blind closer to the beach along a larger pond that was teeming with bird activity. There were more flamingos, but lifers were turning up everywhere, like Common Shelduck, Common-ringed Plover, and Pied Avocet. On our way out we even got a Bluethroat!
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| Common Shelduck |
But the birding wasn’t over. Granada is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and snow capped peaks were ever present. Before we toured the Alhambra we toured the trails Generalife, the summer home of Moorish kings.
Different habitat meant different birds, and we quickly had Common Wood-Pigeon and Eurasian Magpie.
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| Common Wood-pigeon |
Overall the morning was slow, but the trails on the mountain gave us great looks into the tops of trees below us. As a result we got great looks at Long-tailed Tit, Short-toed Treecreeper, and Great Tit.
We gained a lot of elevation but the trail was smooth and didn’t feel like it at all. Coming back down saw an increased amount of bird activity, the loudest and most numerous of which was a flock of Iberian Magpies. They were everywhere, and a few Eurasian Jays were sprinkled in! Flocks of Spotless and European Starlings were in the olive grove, and we were treated to great looks of Meadow Pipit and European Robin to cap it off!
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| Eurasian Magpie |
I wish we had more time to spend birding, but 2 half days was more than good enough. Obviously Christina deserves a massive shoutout for being a very enthusiastic and patient birding buddy. Both Malaga and Granada are great places to cram in some birding time when visiting Europe!
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| Iberian Magpies |
