Spain holds claim on different territories in North Africa, including the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and several islands and islets. Among the so-called Plazas de soberanía, Ceuta stands out as an accessible exclave holding a wide cover of native vegetation and different habitats. Darío Gijón and I gave it a shot and set different North African bird species as targets, bearing in mind that Ceuta is the best (and in most cases only) place to connect with them within Spain.
Needless to say, the dates of our trip coincided with the prenuptial migration peak. During three days of walking up and down Ceuta (as we did not rent or ship any car), we enjoyed great encounters with European honey-buzzards (Pernis apivorus), short-toed snake-eagles (Circaetus gallicus), Montagu’s harriers (Circus pygargus), black kites (Milvus migrans), white storks (Ciconia ciconia), bee-eaters (Merops apiaster), orioles (Oriolus oriolus), turtle-doves (Streptopelia turtur) or cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) filling the sky.
Among passerines, we enjoyed great numbers of warblers including western Bonelli’s warbler (Phylloscopus bonelli), Iberian chiffchaff (Phylloscopus ibericus), western Orphean warbler (Curruca hortensis), greater whitethroat (Curruca communis) and numerous garden warblers (Sylvia borin). We also connected with an obliging tree pipit (Anthus trivialis) and Ceuta’s 4th rufous-tailed scrub-robin (Cercotrichas galactotes) ever recorded.
A bird I was keen to see this trip was the house bunting (Emberiza sahari). When I lifered it in Morocco back in 2018, I got inspired to see how traveling can yield great birding opportunities, but I had not seen it again. This species is present in urban Ceuta, as we connected with few singing individuals in the city center wile walking Calle Real. Not particularly common in the areas we visited, we had instead enjoyed a chick being fed by a ringed adult in Algeciras before reaching to Ceuta — these being part of the only birds breeding in continental Europe ever since 2023.
Another widespread bird in Morocco is the common bulbul (Pycnonotus barbatus). It seemed relatively widespread in peri-urban areas of Ceuta, although less confiding and abundant than in the neighboring country. We heard calls even within the city walls and enjoyed some good views e.g., in Calamocarro beach, next to ruined houses in upper Calamocarro’s east bank, or hiking up to Embalse del Renegado.
The African blue-tit (Cyanistes teneriffae) proved quite abundant and widespread. We first glimpsed it inside the city, as a bird sat on the city walls on our arrival from the ferry. However, dozens of birds were both heard and seen throughout Campo Exterior — Ceuta’s “outback”, the forested area between the city and the Moroccan border. Some individuals at Mirador de Isabel II and upper Calamocarro carried nesting material.
Although not as abundant, we did not take long until noticing the first long-legged buzzards (Buteo rufinus). The taxonomy of the local Atlas buzzard form ssp. cirtensis and the identification of conflictive individuals — a form known as “Gibraltar buzzard” — are still under study. Whichever the case, we enjoyed great views of several individuals sporting lighter or redder morphs in different parts of the exclave, including Calamocarro valley and Pista de Mendicuti.
A recent split resulted in a widespread taxon becoming a new species for the Spanish list. The African chaffinch (Fringilla spodiogenys) is present throughout the forested areas of Ceuta. We took a while to notice them, as their call differs to their European counterpart in that it reminds more of a sparrow than a chaffinch. However, different individuals obliged on our walks around mid Calamocarro and Mirador de Isabel II.
The Levaillant’s woodpecker (Picus vaillantii) also joined the Spanish list recently, only in 2015, but for different reasons. This smart woodpecker had never been recorded before. However, their calls resonated in different areas including Pista de Mendicuti, Mirador de Isabel II or upper Calamocarro, suggesting that the species has recently colonized Ceuta’s outback. After some effort, we managed to get top views of the species in different places.
Our top targets did not end up too well. The black-crowned tchagra (Tchagra senegalus) is distributed throughout Subsaharan Africa and south Arabian Peninsula, with a disjunct population in Atlantic Morocco that reaches Ceuta’s west side. We followed the (few) recent record spots available on eBird, and walked across Pista de Mendicuti on our first day. We had connected with all the above-mentioned endemics by then, merely few hours after reaching Ceuta. While walking through a shrub-covered trail parallel to the road stretching from Pista de Mendicuti to Mirador de Isabel II, a medium-sized bird moved at the very top of a dense shrub. The narrow trail only allowed one person passing at a time, meaning that Darío walking in the front got to glimpse the tchagra while I only saw the moving branches it left behind.
Considering our success by then, we allocated all first day’s afternoon and evening, all of second day and the morning of the third day before the ferry to the tchagra. We had been told that the best strategy was hearing for their distinctive calls and songs in appropriate habitat. And despite many hours and kilometers in such places, we failed to connect with the species again. We thought that they might be silent at this time of the year, but upper Calamocarro, the trail next to Isabel II and Arroyo de las Bombas seem to be the best spots for the species.
This was not the only feasible target we failed. The Maghreb owl (Strix mauritanica) is endemic to North Africa and is often associated with large trees in urban parks. On our first night, we waited for the sun to set around Calamocarro — next to a puddle filled with Moroccan painted frogs (Discoglossus scovazzi). However, very strong winds started just as the day ended, reducing our possibilities of hearing owls in Calamocarro to zero. We hiked the whole route down to the beach and called for a taxi back home. For our second night I was hopeful we could still connect with some in Monte Hacho, on a forested peninsula east of the city, but intermittent rains prevented us to even try it. Just as the tchagra, this species is likely not vocal at this time of the year, but we eventually did not really have a real chance of hearing it anyway. However, Darío found a Maghreb owl feather under some chestnut trees in upper Calamocarro — a cool souvenir from this quest of ours.
All the above-mentioned species are the usual targets as they hold relatively stable populations and are often recorded by birders visiting. Other North African specialties were on our mind but chances were very low. This is why we were extremely excited when we flushed two Barbary partridges (Alectoris barbara) on our second day while looking for tchagras in upper Calamocarro. We could hear them early the following morning lower in the valley, and some hours later enjoyed extremely close views of two individuals (most likely the same) remaining motionless in the dense vegetation next to the stream. This gamebird is poorly known in Ceuta but it seems to be very scarce if resident, and is often missed in visits to Ceuta. This sight during our last birding hours in Ceuta compensated for the missed targets.
We enjoyed many other birds, represented with North African subspecies distinct to those of mainland Spain. Local forms of great-spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra), firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus) and short-toed treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla) were all seen around Calamocarro cork oak forest.
Ceuta proved to be particularly birdy, as looking for local targets combined perfectly with watching migration on the Gibraltar Strait. Understanding that this was probably not the best time of the year for all of the local bird specialties, we are considering to revisit the area in the future, either in late winter or early spring. However, we had a blast finding wildlife in the green slopes of Campo Exterior.
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