The southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula sits as a top birdwatching spot for different reasons depending on the season. Flocks of thousands of large, gliding raptors and storks gather in late summer, while mega vagrant birds, including Siberian buntings and pipits, show up more and more often. For our first visit, Darío and I enjoyed the wonders of spring, this being the first piece of land birds connect with after crossing the strait from Africa. And it proved spectacular.
The close distance to Africa (and likely the global climate change trends) promote that different African species cross to the European continent and settle in different places across southern Cádiz. Numerous records of common bulbul (Pycnonotus barbatus) and Rüppell’s vulture (Gyps rueppelli) in the area over the last decades resulted in the first records of breeding in the whole of Europe. More recently, the house bunting (Emberiza sahari) was first recorded breeding in downtown Algeciras in 2023. We found a chick being reared by its ringed parent, confirming its successful reproduction for the second consecutive year. Plus, I was happy to see this beautiful bird again, after my last encounter in 2018 inspired the name of this website. Worth noting, we spotted migrating sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) and two hobbies (Falco subbuteo) right at the bunting spot in San Francisco street.
Another African species that has progressively colonized the south of Cádiz is the house swift (Apus affinis). Unlike the rest of its family members in Iberia, this tiny swift is resident over the year. The fishermen’s cooperative building in Chipiona hosts the largest known colony in Europe, with some 100 pairs nesting in western house-martin (Delichon urbicum) nests carefully decorated with feathers. Their butterfly-style flight and tiny looks make them really attractive.
Another Cádiz specialty is the northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita). Established here 400 years after its extinction in Europe, only two exiguous populations remained in the wild — one migratory breeding in Turkey and Syria and wintering in Ethiopia, and one resident in Moroccan Souss-Massa National Park. Captive breeding and release resulted in the establishment of a population in southern Cádiz, most of which breed in a cliff colony in La Barca de Vejer along with jackdaws (Corvus monedula). This cliff, right next to a road, offered us great views of adults incubatung and rearing chicks of different ages and engaging in little fights while hearing to the melodies of nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) and a western olivaceous warbler (Iduna opaca) from the stream in the back.
Cádiz also offers great opportunities for pelagic seawatching. We visited Pablo Santonja in Tarifa, who kindly showed us several migration observatories and eventually brought us to Punta del Santo in Tarifa harbour. This breakwater frequented by ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres) and yellow-legged gulls (Larus michahellis) provided a great alternative to seawatching considering that the southernmost point dividing the seas, Isla de Tarifa, is restricted to the military. Scoping the sea, we managed views of puffins (Fratercula arctica), three cooperative pomarine jaegers (Stercorarius pomarinus), some balearic shearwaters (Puffinus mauretanicus) and a pod of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis). The city walls lie on the way there and hold a breeding colony of lesser kestrels (Falco naumanni), as Pablo briefly showed us.
But the quintessence of this region has to be La Janda. This vast grassland once used to be a large shallow lagoon, but the diversity of birds in this former wetland is still striking today. Recent abundant rains flooded part of the bassin weeks ago, meaning that the fields were spectacularly colored and that my car’s underside struggled while driving the dirt tracks across them.
White storks (Ciconia ciconia), griffons (Gyps fulvus) and bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) were numerous throughout. But the fields were filled with smaller birds, including calandra larks (Melanocorypha calandra), greater short-toed lark (Calandrella brachydactyla), corn buntings (Emberiza calandra), northern wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe), stonechats (Saxicola rubicola), woodchat shrikes (Lanius senator) or yellow wagtails (Motacilla flava) — one of which of the Italian form ssp. cinereocapilla. A lifer reptile, an ocellated lizard (Timon lepidus), sunbathed on the roadside.
The biggest of surprises came when a passerine sitting next to a puddle in the middle of the track made us stop. As we put the blinds down, songs of melodious warblers (Hippolais polyglotta) and Cetti’s warblers (Cettia cetti) filled the space. Then we noticed. An unexpected male ortolan bunting (Emberiza hortulana), a lifer for both Darío and I, foraged between the track and the surrounding vegetation for a good while. Tracking down this scarce species during migration felt awesome, even more so casually — although Darío had mentioned during the trip that it was just about time that we would bump into one!
La Janda continued offering joy as we spotted a black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus) while watching some colorful bee-eaters sitting. In fact, raptors were plentiful. Several black kites (Milvus migrans), short-toed snake-eagle (Circaetus gallicus), western marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus), booted eagle (Hieraeetus pennatus) and Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus) flew by.
Our trip around Gibraltar Strait was both productive and enjoyable, and the north side produced new places with great potential. We are already discussing about being back there again soon, while wondering what African species will cross to Europe and establish next.
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