Pine woods at Alcalá de Guadaíra (from Google StreetView)
Just about the only downside to being a birder based in Alcala de los Gazules in Cadiz Province is that Azure-winged Magpie are very elusive and hard to see in that province. The only place they are said to occur regularly is in Algaida pinewoods near Sanlucar. I have indeed seen them there but very infrequently and I know others who've looked several times without any luck. Yet just across the Guadalquivir on the Coto Donana they're usually easy to find. So any hope of seeing them when staying in the area involves driving up to Seville and then down to El Rocio, a round trip of almost 5 hours. Other less certain sites in the Sierra Norte or in the north-east Malaga will take almost as long.
I was updating my notes and writing up any changes when I had an email from Gordon Shaw for tipping me off about a colony in Alcalá de Guadaíra, a mere 90 minutes away from my base in Alcalá de los Gazules (there are many "alcalás" as it means 'stronghold' in Arabic). Better still this site is only 20 minutes from Aeropuerto de Sevilla (into which I often fly) and only a 10 minute detour off the SE 40 as you head south. A quick check of the Atlas de las Aves Reproductoras de España (Pub. 2004) confirmed that this population hadn't been reported twenty-odd years ago. However, with the release online of the latest Spanish bird atlas (III Atlas Aves - see https://atlasaves.seo.org/ and below) it's clear that the population had been established at the time of the new survey (2014-2017). The new atlas appears to show a mixed picture with populations now established on the east bank of the Guadalquivir but also missing in large areas of Huelva province. Does this apparent absence reflect a decline in population or poorer survey work?
I was updating my notes and writing up any changes when I had an email from Gordon Shaw for tipping me off about a colony in Alcalá de Guadaíra, a mere 90 minutes away from my base in Alcalá de los Gazules (there are many "alcalás" as it means 'stronghold' in Arabic). Better still this site is only 20 minutes from Aeropuerto de Sevilla (into which I often fly) and only a 10 minute detour off the SE 40 as you head south. A quick check of the Atlas de las Aves Reproductoras de España (Pub. 2004) confirmed that this population hadn't been reported twenty-odd years ago. However, with the release online of the latest Spanish bird atlas (III Atlas Aves - see https://atlasaves.seo.org/ and below) it's clear that the population had been established at the time of the new survey (2014-2017). The new atlas appears to show a mixed picture with populations now established on the east bank of the Guadalquivir but also missing in large areas of Huelva province. Does this apparent absence reflect a decline in population or poorer survey work?
Azure-winged Magpie distribution in western Andalucia (adapted from the Atlas de las Aves Reproductoras de España Pub. 2004)
Distribution recorded in the third national breeding bird atlas (based on survey work 2014-2017)
So, I checked the maps on eBird and I found that the eBird map seems to broadly confirm the results of the atlas work. The odd reports of Azure-winged Magpie across northern Huelva, where there's a blank space on the new atlas atlas, seems to mirror to a large degree the route of the N-435 from Extremadura which suggests they're still present, just under-recorded.
Delving more deeply into the reports around on eBird I found fewer than a dozen reports from the immediate vicinity of Sevilla (mainly of 1-2 birds although eight were reported at Parque del Alamillo in 2019). Given the source it's not surprising that most reports are post 2020 (i.e. after the use of eBird increased markedly). Records from Alcalá de Guadaíra are quite different in nature (if not in time frame); the first report on eBird comes from 2018 when 8 were reported and since then the lowest count has been of 3 birds (2021) and the highest of 39 (2022). Gordon reported to me that they were 'common' around his hotel in Parque Oromana and the report in 2018 of 8 birds in the Parque Ribera del Guadaíra (just to the west of the castillo) which suggests a population throughout the stone pine woodland along the Rio Guadaíra Unlike reports in Sevilla this is obviously a secure and perhaps growing population. The nearest other cluster of reports (involving fewer records and fewer birds) is from Carmona to the north-east. It's likely that Azure-winged Magpie were commoner in the lower Guadalquivir valley in the past when more areas were, I'm told, afforested so this may be an overlooked relict population. However, I prefer to think it's a indication that the population is expanding. Either way my chances of seeing this handsome species on my jaunts out to Spain have increased considerably and besides as a retired history teacher I really ought to visit the castillo in Alcalá de Guadaíra as it's said to be the finest Moorish fortification in Spain.
Delving more deeply into the reports around on eBird I found fewer than a dozen reports from the immediate vicinity of Sevilla (mainly of 1-2 birds although eight were reported at Parque del Alamillo in 2019). Given the source it's not surprising that most reports are post 2020 (i.e. after the use of eBird increased markedly). Records from Alcalá de Guadaíra are quite different in nature (if not in time frame); the first report on eBird comes from 2018 when 8 were reported and since then the lowest count has been of 3 birds (2021) and the highest of 39 (2022). Gordon reported to me that they were 'common' around his hotel in Parque Oromana and the report in 2018 of 8 birds in the Parque Ribera del Guadaíra (just to the west of the castillo) which suggests a population throughout the stone pine woodland along the Rio Guadaíra Unlike reports in Sevilla this is obviously a secure and perhaps growing population. The nearest other cluster of reports (involving fewer records and fewer birds) is from Carmona to the north-east. It's likely that Azure-winged Magpie were commoner in the lower Guadalquivir valley in the past when more areas were, I'm told, afforested so this may be an overlooked relict population. However, I prefer to think it's a indication that the population is expanding. Either way my chances of seeing this handsome species on my jaunts out to Spain have increased considerably and besides as a retired history teacher I really ought to visit the castillo in Alcalá de Guadaíra as it's said to be the finest Moorish fortification in Spain.
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