Birds of Spain Flashcards
Large, gull-like tern.
Black cap.
Body white.
Massive, thick, and brilliant red with dark tip.
Caspian Tern
In Europe, this species inhabits broad river valleys, pasture and cultivated land with shelter-belts and scattered trees; sunny hillsides, meadows, clover fields, plains, dissected steppe, shrubby riverbanks in semi-desert, and practically any open and well-timbered country, such as cork-oak woods, olive groves, tamarisks, rice fields, cereal and root crops, and Mediterranean macchia scrub.
It feeds on flying insects, primarily Hymenoptera, and it hunts from perches.
European Bee-eater
a wading bird
all white except for its dark legs, black bill with a yellow tip, and a yellow breast patch like a pelican. It has a crest in the breeding season.
Eurasian Spoonbill
Has a particularly graceful flight, with powerful and elegant wingbeats which give an impression of buoyancy and ease. it searches the countryside, flying low, and generally holds its wings with a marked positive dihedral.
a deceptively small raptor, though it appears larger because of its large wing surface compared to small body weight, which gives it a typically buoyant flight.
requires a large open area. It favours posts on which both male and female can rest: these can be fenceposts, small trees, or rocky outcrops. When hunting, in any season, it prefers areas of low or sparse vegetation where prey is more visible.
Montagu’s Harrier
the largest shanks apart from the willet, which is altogether more robustly built.
are distinguished by the shape of the lower bill which gives it an upturned appearance to the bill. They have long greenish legs and a long bill with a grey base. They show a white wedge on the back in flight. They
Common Greenshank
has an unfeathered red face and head, and a long, curved red bill. It breeds colonially on coastal or mountain cliff ledges and feeds on lizards, insects, and other small animals.
It disappeared from Europe over 300 years ago, and is now considered critically endangered.
Northern Bald Ibis
is a large gull.
is a specialist fish eater. This bird will feed at night, often well out to sea, but also slowly patrols close into beaches, occasionally dangling its legs to increase drag.
short stubby red bill and “string of pearls” white wing primary tips, rather than the large “mirrors” of some other species. The legs are grey-green.
Audouin’s Gull
It is a white bird with a slender black beak, long black legs and, in the western race, yellow feet. As an aquatic bird, it feeds in shallow water and on land, consuming a variety of small creatures. It breeds colonially.
sociable birds and are often seen in small flocks. They use a variety of methods to procure their food; they stalk their prey in shallow water, often running with raised wings or shuffling their feet to disturb small fish, or may stand still and wait to ambush prey.
Little Egret
A starling-sized bird with a long slim bill. The breeding male has all blue-grey plumage apart from its darker wings. Females and immatures are much less striking, with dark brown upperparts, and paler brown scaly underparts. The male has rufous-chestnut plumage from the mid-breast down to the undertail.
Blue Rock Thrush
often stands upright. It runs while foraging and probing into the soil. It digs with the bill to find some larvae, and also uses it to break the frozen snow during winter. It also may hover to catch insects from bushes.
When alarmed, it crouches briefly.
When taking off, it starts to sing while rising in the air by circling, and when it reached some height, it soars and circles during several minutes over its territory, descending until about 80-100 metres from the ground, and then, goes into a dive to the ground.
Calandra Lark
a Eurasian wader
in breeding plumage are a marbled brown color, slightly lighter below.
They have red legs and a black-tipped red bill, and show white up the back and on the wings in flight.
Common Redshank
named for its voice, which is said to sound like pebbles clicked together.
It is a ground nester, of flycatcher-like habits, found in overgrown pastures and coastal wastelands.
European Stonechat
brown above and buff below, with chestnut wing patches and a white throat.
Adult males have a grey head and the white eye ring which gives the species its name.
found in dry open country with bushes
Spectacled Warbler
a very small wader
Its small size, fine dark bill, dark legs and quicker movements distinguish this species from all waders except the other dark-legged stints. It can be distinguished from these in all plumages by its combination of a fine bill tip, unwebbed toes and long primary projection.
Little Stint
Medium-sized tern. Long, thin black bill with pale yellow tip. Body white. Back pale gray. Elongated feathers on back of head make a slight shaggy crest. Black cap when breeding. Pale forehead in winter. Legs black.
Sandwich Tern
Medium-sized woodpecker endemic to the Iberian peninsula.
Iberian Green Woodpecker
a species found almost exclusively in reed beds, usually with some bushes.
Eurasian Reed Warbler
confined to the Iberian Peninsula, northwest Africa, southernmost France, and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. It is largely non-migratory
has darker, oily-looking black plumage, slightly purple- or green-glossed in bright light, which is entirely spotless in spring and summer.
It also differs in having conspicuously longer throat feathers, forming a shaggy “beard” which is particularly obvious when the bird is singing. Its legs are bright pink. In summer, the bill is yellow with a bluish base in males and a pinkish base in females
Spotless Starling
It is strongly migratory, feeds by plunge-diving for fish, usually from saline environments. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.
Its thin sharp bill is yellow with a black tip and its legs are also yellow. In winter, the forehead is more extensively white, the bill is black and the legs duller.
Little Tern
a small gull. The black hood extends down the nape and shows distinct white eye crescents. The blunt tipped, parallel sided, dark red bill has a black subterminal band
Mediterranean Gull
Large brownish shearwater with mostly white underparts and rather large pale bill. Grey-brown cap to below.
Scopoli’s Shearwater
This small shorebird is very much like the Semipalmated Plover, and replaces it in Europe and Asia.
These birds forage for food on beaches, tidal flats and fields, usually by sight. They eat insects, crustaceans and worms.
Little Ringed Plover
It is a wader. The name lapwing has been variously attributed to the “lapping” sound its wings make in flight, from the irregular progress in flight due to its large wings. The typical contact call is a loud, shrill “pee-wit” from which they get their other name of peewit
Northern Lapwing
feeds mainly on rabbits, but can prey on many other animals, such as partridges, rodents, hares, pigeons, crows, ducks, foxes.
The species is classified as Vulnerable
Spanish Imperial Eagle
Despite being classed as a wader, this species prefers dry open habitats with some bare ground. It is largely nocturnal, particularly when singing its loud wailing songs, which are reminiscent of that of curlews. Food consists of insects and other small invertebrates, and occasionally small reptiles, frogs and rodents. It lays 2–3 eggs in a narrow scrape in the ground.
European Stone-curlew
The adult male has a grey back, whitish underparts, black head, white throat and red eyes. The female is mainly brown above and buff below, with a grey head. The song is fast and rattling.
Sardinian Warbler
known in North America as the eared grebe. uses multiple foraging techniques. Insects, which make up the majority of this bird’s diet, are caught either on the surface of the water or when they are in flight. It occasionally practices foliage gleaning. This grebe dives to catch crustaceans, molluscs, tadpoles, and small frogs and fish.
Black-necked Grebe
a small passerine bird in the swallow family. ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, and a short, square tail that has distinctive white patches on most of its feathers.
builds a nest adherent to the rock under a cliff overhang or increasingly onto a man-made structure.
Eurasian Crag Martin
This is a smallish lark, slightly smaller than the Eurasian skylark. It has a long, spiky, erectile crest. It is greyer and lacks the white wing and tail edge of that species. In flight it shows grey underwings. The body is mainly dark-streaked grey above and whitish below.
Its typical habitat is rugged areas with scrub, bare patches of ground and semi-arid grassland. Its food is weed, seeds and insects, the latter especially in the breeding season
Thekla Lark
large gull which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species
yellow legs, grey back, slightly darker than herring gulls but lighter than lesser black-backed gulls. They have a red spot on the bill. There is a red ring around the eye.
Yellow-legged Gull
A passerine bird in the crow family. It is gregarious and vocal, living in small groups with a complex social structure in farmland, open woodland, on coastal cliffs, and in urban settings. intelligent birds, and have been observed using tools. An omnivorous and opportunistic feeder, it eats a wide variety of plant material and invertebrates, as well as food waste from urban areas.
Western Jackdaw
the only member of the wren family Troglodytidae found in Eurasia and Africa.
Eurasian Wren
This is an unusual bunting because the plumages of the sexes are similar in appearance.
The song of the male is a repetitive metallic sound, usually likened to jangling keys, which is given from a low bush, fence post or telephone wires.
Corn Bunting
generally found in or near inland water. Their breeding habitat is freshwater marshes.
do not dive for fish, but forage on the wing picking up items at or near the water’s surface or catching insects in flight. They mainly eat insects and fish as well as amphibians.
Black Tern
known as the black-bellied plover in North America
Grey Plover
inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges
elegant bird, soaring on long wings held at a dihedral, and long forked tail, twisting as it changes direction. The body, upper tail and wing coverts are rufous. The white primary flight feathers contrast with the black wing tips and dark secondaries.
Red Kite
a small stiff-tailed diving duck
The male has a white head with black crown, a blue bill, and reddish-grey plumage. The female has a dark bill and rather duller colouring.
White-headed Duck
is a small wader in the plover family of birds. also as an insult for someone considered simple or a dotard.
Eurasian Dotterel
a large seabird
a streaked greyish brown, with a black cap, while juveniles are a warmer brown and unstreaked below. They have a short, blunt tail, and a powerful flight.
Great Skua
very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces. They never settle voluntarily on the ground. Spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks. They drink on the wing.
It is entirely dark except for a large white throat patch which is frequently visible from a distance.
Pallid Swift
found in hilly or mountainous habitats, with rocky walls or crags and open to wooded land, in arid to semi-moist climate.
Bonelli Eagle
resides in mudflats and shallow coastal lagoons with salt water. Using its feet, the bird stirs up the mud, then sucks water through its bill and filters out small shrimp, seeds, blue-green algae, microscopic organisms, and mollusks
Greater Flamingo
it is strongly associated with wetland areas, especially those rich in common reed.
gliding low over flat open ground on its search for prey, with its wings held in a shallow V-shape and often with dangling legs.
Western Marsh Harrier
widespread and common resident breeder in coniferous forests
erectile crest, the tip of which is often recurved, its gorget and collar are distinctive. It is, like other tits, talkative, and birds keep up a constant zee, zee, zee
European Crested Tit
a small, stocky wader
short greenish-grey legs and a very long straight dark bill. The body is mottled brown with straw-yellow stripes on top and pale underneath. They have a dark stripe through the eye, with light stripes above and below it. The wings are pointed
Common Snipe
unusual among waders in that they typically hunt their insect prey on the wing like swallows, although they can also feed on the ground.
Collared Pratincole
a small wader
having a longer down-curved bill, longer neck and legs and a white rump. The breeding adult has patterned dark grey upperparts and brick-red underparts.
Curlew Sandpiper
habitat is open grassland and undisturbed cultivation, with plants tall enough for cover. It has a stately slow walk, and tends to run when disturbed rather than fly. It is gregarious, especially in winter.
This species is omnivorous, taking seeds, insects, rodents and reptiles. The male has a flamboyant display with foot stamping and leaping in the air.
Little Bustard
Commonly forages from a perch up to three metres above the ground, flying down to the ground to catch prey, sallying out from the perch to catch insects in flight, or bounding over the ground to grab prey.
In addition to feeding on a range of insects and other invertebrates, will also eat berries and seeds
Black-eared Wheatear
is a small plover. Adults have a grey-brown back and wings, a white belly and a white breast with one black neckband. They have a brown cap, a white forehead, a black mask around the eyes with white above and a short dark bill. The legs are flesh-coloured and the toes are all webbed.
Little Ringed Plover
a gregarious bird, eats a wide range of animal prey, including insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals and small birds. It takes most of its food from the ground, among low vegetation, and from shallow water.
the wings are long and broad enabling the bird to soar
Main sound is noisy bill-clattering, which has been likened to distant machine gun fire.
White Stork
bill is fairly short and thin, with a slightly downcurving upper mandible. The bill, legs, and feet are black and the eye is dark brown with a dark eye-ring, which is not readily visible.
Common Bulbul
a species of leaf warbler endemic to Portugal, Spain and North Africa
Iberian Chiffchaff
a shy and wary species. It is seen singly or in pairs, usually in marshy areas, rivers or inland waters. It feeds on amphibians, small fish and insects, generally wading slowly in shallow water stalking its prey. Breeding pairs usually build nests in large forest trees—most commonly deciduous but also coniferous—which can be seen from long distances, as well as on large boulders, or under overhanging ledges in mountainous areas.
Black Stork
Common fantail warbler
They occur in grasslands, thorny scrub, and marshes, most numerously in Africa but also across southern Eurasia to Australia. Some are called cloud-scrapers, from the male’s towering courtship-flight. Notoriously difficult to identify; some species may be distinguished only by the configuration of wing feathers.
Zitting Cisticola
a medium-sized shearwater
This bird looks like a flying cross, with its wing held at right angles to the body, and it changes from dark brown to dirty white as the dark upperparts and paler undersides are alternately exposed as it travels low over the sea.
considered critically endangered
Balearic Shearwater
a small wader.
a short fine bill, brown back and longer yellowish legs. has a smaller and less contrasting white rump patch
Wood Sandpiper
Seabird that is native to the Atlantic Ocean, breeding on the Western Europe and North America.
mainly white streamlined body with long neck and long pointed bill
Northern Gannet
a medium-sized wading bird that breeds in marshes and wet meadows
highly gregarious sandpiper is migratory and sometimes forms huge flocks in its winter grounds
a long-necked, pot-bellied bird.
male has breeding plumage that includes brightly coloured head tufts, bare orange facial skin, extensive black on the breast, and the large collar of ornamental feathers
Ruff
a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird
orange head, neck and chest in breeding plumage and dull grey-brown winter coloration, and distinctive black and white wingbar at all times.
Black-tailed Godwit
a small falcon
a brown back and barred grey underparts. a grey head and tail, but lacks the dark spotting on the back, the black malar stripe, and has grey patches in the wings
Lesser Kestral
Somewhat similar in habits and appearance to the other aerial insectivores. They are fast fliers and they swoop on insects while airborne. They have broad but pointed wings.
These swallows are usually found over grassland where they hawk insects. They may sometimes take advantage of grass fires and grazing cattle that flush insects into the air
Red-rumped Swallow
a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. It breeds in most of temperate Europe and northwestern Africa, and is partially migratory, with birds from central Europe wintering to the south and west of their breeding range.
In winter, joins loose flocks of other wanderers such as tits and warblers
Common Firecrest
This bird is one of the most common waders throughout its breeding and wintering ranges.
moves along the coastal mudflat beaches with a characteristic “sewing machine” feeding action, methodically picking small food items.
Dunlin
This is a bird of dry open country, often on hill slopes, with bushes for nesting. The nest is built in low shrub or gorse, and 3–5 eggs are laid.
This small warbler feeds on a variety of small insects and their larvae, and berries. It forages by actively moving through dense vegetation and picking prey off of leaves and stems with its bill.
Subalpine Warbler
A long-legged predatory wading bird of the heron family. A bird of wetland areas, it can be seen around lakes, rivers, ponds, marshes and on the sea coast. It feeds mostly on aquatic creatures which it catches after standing stationary beside or in the water or stalking its prey through the shallows.
Grey Heron
Rather small, pale and greyish brown, strong and pointed bill, clean white breast, rufous-tinged crown, dark patch on breat side, below cheek.
Breeds in open, dry areas, on cultivated fields or more arid plains.
Greater Short-toed Lark
It derives its scientific name from its fondness for hemp and its English name from its liking for seeds of flax, from which linen is made.
Open land with thick bushes is favoured for breeding, including heathland and garden.
The bird was a popular pet in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.
Common Linnet
most numerous in Spain where it is fairly common.
predominantly white underside, the upper parts being grayish brown. The tail has 3 or 4 bars. an owl-like rounded head, brightly yellow eyes and lightly barred under wing. generally very silent.
Its prey is mostly reptiles, mainly snakes, but also some lizards. It favors soaring over hill slopes and hilltops on updrafts, and it does much of its hunting from this position at heights. it frequently hovers like a kestrel. When it soars it does so on flattish wings.
Short-toed Eagle
About half of this gull’s food is fish. It flies a few metres above the surface of the water and dives into the water when it sees suitable prey. It also probes in the mud with its beak and feeds on marine invertebrates. It also catches insects in flight.
It is not a pelagic species, and is rarely seen far from land.
This rather uncommon gull breeds in colonies, nesting on the ground and laying up to three brown-spotted white eggs in a scrape sparsely lined with feathers and bits of vegetation
Slender-billed Gull
a large bird
Flight is slow, with the neck retracted and the legs extending a long way behind the tail. It is a secretive bird, tending to skulk in reed beds. Its long toes mean it can walk on floating vegetation, and it sometimes walks over bushes in the same way. It seldom perches in trees, preferring more terrestrial sites to rest.
It is most active at dawn and dusk, roosting with other birds in the middle of the day and at night, but increasing its diurnal activity while rearing young.
Purple Heron
a small shorebird. black bills and dark legs. During the breeding season, males have a black horizontal head bar, two incomplete dark breast-bands on each side of their breast, black ear coverts and a rufous nape and crown, whereas the females are paler in these areas, without the dark markings
Kentish Plover
Medium to large gull.
Head and underparts white.
Back dark gray.
Wingtips black with some white spots.
Bill yellow with red spot near tip of lower mandible.
Legs yellow
Lesser Black-backed Gull
