Tenerife wildlife redux

As regular readers may know, in February 2025 Mrs Sciencebase and I visited the beautiful Canary Island of Tenerife to celebrate a big birthday for Mrs Sb, our hotel room had wonderful views of Los Gigantes, the huge volcanic cliffs on the northwest coast, and the sun would set behind the neighbouring island of La Gomera. We had a decent holiday, spoiled a little by both of us having had a dose of (presumably) norovirus. Fun, not so much.

Anyway, when we got back in Old Blighty, we booked ourselves the same trip to celebrate my similarly big birthday. There were no viral surprises, but Mrs Sb had arranged for our offspring and their partners to join us for the week, so that was wonderful. We dined with them most days but had our own little jaunts for walking and birding etc separately.

There were plenty of gorgeous Atlantic Canary (Serinus canaria) around, closer to the hotel this year than I remember last. The Atlantic, or Wild, Canary, is a finch commonly found on the Canary Islands, it’s a type of Serin. Of course, its name comes from the islands, not vice versa. The Romans named the islands Canariae Insulae, meaning the Islands of the Dogs because of the abundant “sea dogs” on the beaches; these creatures were, in fact, Monk Seals.

Lots of lovely Canary Islands Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus canariensis), which looks like the species we see in the UK but sounds rather different. There was the usual coterie of Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis).

Along the coast path heading south, we would once again see the bold Berthelot’s Pipit (Anthus berthelotii), on the rocks, numerous Eurasian Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), a couple of Little Egret (Egretta garzetta), a solitary, juvenile Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula), and several Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres), especially close pecking at crumbs at the viewpoint (el mirador). Also on our coastal route march, an introduced species, the Barbary Partridge (Alectoris barbara).

We heard, but never saw, Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) and African Blue Tit (Cyanistes teneriffae). We also finally made the distinction between Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) of which there were many and the dusty, dirtier-looking Barbary Dove (S. risoria). Barbary might be thought of as the African version of the Collared. Also out and about Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos).

On a trek to the farthest safe point on Los Gigantes, we saw a pair of Canary Island Raven (Corvus corax canariensis), there are, I believe, no other corvids on Tenerife, a Barbary Falcon (Falco peregrinus pelegrinoides), this is basically the island sub-species of Peregrine Falcon). We’d already seen a Western Canary Islands Kestrel (Falco tunninculus canariensis) on stepping out on to our hotel balcony the moment we’d checked in.

I ventured down into a scrubby, dammed-up valley, a few minutes’ walk from the hotel, and saw a couple of non-native Blue-crowned Parakeet (Thectocercus acuticaudatus). I don’t know if they’ve ever been recorded on this island before, although I suspect that these two are a well-known escapee pair. Great views of several Sardinian Warbler (local subspecies Curruca melanocephala leucogastra), as well as the increasingly familiar Canary Islands Chiffchaff and Atlantic Canary in this spot.

Also, in that dammed-up valley spot, which seems to have been set up as a trail bike circuit, lots of tiny, blue butterflies, which looked superficially the size of Small Blue but on further investigation turned out not to be Alcon Blue, which ObsID thought, but the much more likely and common African Grass Blue (Zizeeria knysna).

We had already seen lots of Whites, perhaps Large White (Pieris brassicae) and Small White, and possibly and occasional Southern Small White (P. rapae). This latter species has become infamous among butterfliers in the UK as it made its tantalising debut in Suffolk in 2025.

In other Lepidoptera news, I think the only other species I saw for sure was the Brown Triangle Snout (Hypena lividalis) of which there were lots on the parking land around the “bandstand” in the town south of the hotel. One other fleeting glimpse of another butterfly of Common Blue size but unidentified. No Monarch this year.

On our last evening in Tenerife, watching the sunset on the hotel terrace, we caught sight of a large raptor. It was definitely not a falcon and not a harrier, and definitely not a fish eagle. It was an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), a rather rare and endangered species on the islands. Its name translates from the Spanish, la águila pescadora, as the eagle fisherwoman, literally. It’s definitely not an eagle, despite that epithet.

In other insect news, a few Canarian Band-winged Grasshopper (Oedipoda canariensis). But, I am not 100% on the ID of those yet.

We didn’t visit the volcano, El Teide, which I had done on a solo trip in 2025, we didn’t make it to the northern rainforest area for the Blue Chaffinch, and we didn’t get back out on a boat for whale watching (the Atlantic was far too windy and rough for seafaring this year).

I’ve only given the scientific names of the species we saw on this trip.