Rare Birds in Spain Blog

Rarest of the rare contest is back again! This is its 8th year contest, including 2017 year records. A selection of some of the rarest sightings obtained in the country during 2017 and chosen by the webmaster of Rarebirdspain.net according to scarcity or singularity of the records. This year, Rare Birds in Spain, in its 17 to 18 year-in-a-row online period has published until 27th December 2017 news on 1283 rarities and near-rarities (585 RC 2017 criteria rarities and 698 up to 2015 rarities, the ‘near rarities’, 1237 rarities in 2016 (532 RC and 705 near rarities; 933 of both in 2015). In 2018 only 'true' rarities committee rarities will be featured in the website. Near rarities will be discontinued in the website. However, we encourage to submit them and follow all interesting records for Catalunya that are currently covered in the sister website rarebirds.cat. Rarebirdspain.net web has published 504 large (720 pixels wide) original photos in 2017 (608 in 2016, 5...

Vanellus miles , Murcia, 26.11.2017 © Vicente Hernández Gil El 26.11.2017 se observaron tres avefrías en embalse de Santomera, Murcia (Mónica Rubio, Belén Escudero, Francisco José Mora y Susana Noguera). La cita fue compartida en el grupo de WhatsApp Birdnet Murcia, y los autores coincidieron que se trataba de una avefría exòtica, la avefría militar ( Vanellus milles ), aunque había dudas por el patrón alar y se llegó a pensar en individuos híbridos. Vanellus miles , Murcia, 26.11.2017 © Vicente Hernández Gil Vanellus miles , Murcia, 26.11.2017 © Susana Noguera La observación tuvo lugar a las 10.30h y las avefrías se mostraban muy activas volando desde una orilla del embalse de Santomera donde había tarros blancos ( Tadorna tadorna ) hasta una zona donde se alimentaban un grupo de flamencos ( Phoenicopterus roseus ). Hicieron varios vuelos en el tiempo que los autores iniciales estuvieron allí. Se obtuvieron fotos a distancia. Vanellus miles , Murcia, 26.11.2017...

Cover with the stunning Lammergeier photo from Oriol Muntané Published in early April 2017, When and Where to Watch Birds in Catalunya is the new book from Tundra Ediciones, the Spanish leading nature related books publisher. Written by this blog and Rare Birds in Spain website author, Ricard Gutiérrez, the book is foreworded by GONHS' Gibraltar Bird report editor Dr. Ernest F J Garcia. Here we'll deal with a complete review of its contents aimed to perhaps encourage you to order one copy of this 378 pages long brand new guide to perhaps one of the best birding places in SW Europe. Did you know that 443 bird species have been seen in Catalunya and that their number changes every month? Did you know that Catalunya holds the current European record of most birds seen in 24 hours, well exceeding 210 species? Can you imagine waking up in the snow-covered Pyrenees with Tengmalm’s Owl , Citril Finch or Lammergeier , visiting the open grassland at midday with Lit...