Birdwatching
The "Island of Eternal Spring" is a wonderful place to birdwatch. Due to the year round mild temperature a great variety of birds may be seen.
Early morning is typically the best time of the day for birding since many birds are searching for food which makes them easier to find and observe.
Browse through our guide to the species of birds you are most likely to see in Tenerife, then take an early morning walk and see how many you find!
Don't forget your binoculars!
Plain Swift
Plain Swift
This bird is small in size and dark brown, nearly black, in colour and flies very fast. May be confused with the Little Tern but the Plain Swift is smaller, darker in colour, has much thinner, dark wings and a forked tail. The Plain Swift is found in a range of habitats from the sea to the highest parts of the islands, as long as there are flying insects for them to eat.
Spanish Sparrow
Spanish Sparrows
The population distribution of this species covers the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands. The male has a cap the colour of chocolate, with a white stripe over the eye, the throat and breast being black. Its cheeks are white and there are white stripes on its black dorsum. The colour of the female is lighter and more uniform, a grey-brown colour, with a striped flank and darker wings.
ChiffChaff
Canarian ChiffChaff
The Canarian ChiffChaff is a common and widespread leaf warbler, is resident all-year round and does not migrate. A small olive-brown bird which actively flits through trees and shrubs, with a distinctive tail-wagging movement. Less bright than the similar willow warbler and readily distinguished by its song, from where it gets its name. Picks insects from trees and also flies out to snap them up in flight.
Blackbird
Blackbird
Blackbirds range across Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia. Males are jet-black with a bright yellow beak and eye-ring. Females have brown plumage with a brown beak and juveniles are mottled, with a rufous hue. Their typical habitat in Tenerife is in the pine forests and scrub found in the north of the island. Blackbirds forage for insects and worms, as well as feeding on berries and fruit.
Blackcaps
Blackcap
The Blackcap is a common and widespread warbler which breeds through the warmer climates in Europe. The Blackcap is easily identified by its loud song and non-musical calls, at times not unlike those of the Blackbird. Its body is grey, the back being darker than the inner part, and the males have a black cap, while the cap on the females is reddish-brown.
Yellow Legged Gull
Yellow Legged Gull
The Yellow-legged Gull is a large gull of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. It concentrates mainly around areas where there is abundant food, namely, around fish markets and refuse dumps. These very numerous gulls have a medium grey coloured back and the adults have yellow legs and a red orbital ring. The bill is also yellow with a small red mark at the end. Juveniles have streaked grey-brown bodies with dark bills and pink legs.
Sandwich Tern
Sandwich Tern
The Sandwich Tern is a seabird of the Tern family. They feed by plunge-diving for fish, almost invariably from the sea. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display. The Sandwich Tern's thin sharp bill is black with a yellow tip. Its upperwings are pale grey and its underparts white, and this tern looks very pale in flight, although the primary flight feathers darken during the summer.
Turnstone
Turnstone
These chunky powerful birds have strong necks and bills well suited to their feeding technique. As the name implies, these species readily turn stones or seaweed looking for hidden invertebrates. They are strictly coastal, preferring stony beaches to sand, and are often found with other waders. Their appearance is striking in flight, with white patches on the back, wings and tail.
Little Egret
Little Egret
The little Egret is a small white heron with an 88-106 cm wingspan. Its plumage is all white. It has long black legs with yellow feet and a slim black bill. In the breeding season, the adult has two long nape plumes and gauzy plumes on the back and breast. The bare skin between the bill and eyes becomes red or blue. Little Egrets are mostly silent but make various croaking and bubbling calls at their breeding colonies and produce a harsh alarm call when disturbed.
Grey Wagtail
Grey Wagtail
This species breeds in much of temperate Europe and Asia and parts of north Africa. It nests in crevices in cliffs and rocks, laying 3-6 speckled eggs.
This is a slender bird, with a long, constantly wagging tail.
The breeding adult male is grey above and yellow below, with a black throat. Other plumages lack the black throat, and the yellow may be diluted by white except in the undertail area.
Berthelot's Pipit
Berthelot's Pipit
The Berthelot's Pipit is a small bird which breeds in both Madeira and the Canary Islands. It is a common resident in both archipelagos. Berthelot's Pipit is found in open country. The nest is on the ground, with 3-5 eggs being laid. It is mainly grey above and whitish below, with some breast streaking. It has a whitish supercilium, with dark eye and moustache stripes. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are browner than adults.
Monk Parakeets
Monk Parakeets
The Monk Parakeets originate in the temperate areas of South America. It has bright green upperparts. The forehead and breast are pale grey and the rest of the underparts are very-light green to yellow. The flight feathers are dark blue, and the tail is long and tapering. The bill is orange. The call is a loud and throaty graaa or skveet. The Monk Parakeet is the only parrot that builds a stick nest, in a tree or on a man-made structure, rather than using a hole in a tree. This gregarious species often breeds colonially, building a single large nest with separate entrances for each pair.
Common Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
The Common Sandpiper is a small wader. The adult has greyish brown upperparts, white underparts, short yellowish legs and a bill with a pale base and dark tip. Juveniles are barred above and have buff edges to the wing feathers. The Common Sandpiper breeds across most of Europe and Asia. It nests near fresh water and forages by sight on the ground or in shallow water, picking up small food items such as insects, crustaceans and other invertebrate.
Teal
Teal
The Teal is a common and widespread duck which breeds in Europe and Asia. It is the smallest dabbling duck. The breeding male has grey flanks and back, with a yellow rear end and a white-edged green speculum, obvious in flight or at rest. It has a chestnut head with a green eye patch. The females are light brown, with plumage much like a female Mallard.
Moorhen
Moorhen
The moorhens are medium-sized water birds. They are relatives of coots, and because of their nervous behavior are sometimes called skitty coots. They are all brown and black with some white markings in plumage and are usually easy to see, feeding in open water margins rather than skulking in reedbeds. They have short, rounded wings and are weak fliers however, they can walk very well on strong legs, and have long toes that are well adapted to soft, uneven surfaces.
Chaffinch
Chaffinch "Africana"
The Chaffinch is a small bird the finch family. Its large double white wing bars, white tail edges and greenish rump easily identify species. The breeding male is unmistakable, with his reddish underparts and a blue-grey cap. The female is drabber and greener, but still obvious. You are most likely to spot this species in the north of the island as it favours open woodland as its habitiat. It builds its nest in a tree fork, and decorates the exterior with moss or lichen to make it less conspicuous.
Linnet
Linnets
The Linnet is a small bird in the finch family. Resident in Tenerife, the Linnet tends to migrate to the open land of the north with thick bushes for breeding, including heathland and gardens. It builds its nest in a bush, laying 4-7 eggs. It is a slim bird with a long tail. The upperparts are brown, the throat is sullied white and the bill is grey. The summer male has a grey nape, red head patch and red breast. Females and young birds lack the red and have white underparts with the breast streaked buff.
Corn Bunting
Corn Bunting
The Corn Bunting is a bird of open country with trees, so prefers to reside in the north of the island. This is an unusual bunting because the sexes appear similar in plumage, both sexes look something like larks, with streaked grey-brown above, and whitish underparts. Its natural food consists of insects when feeding young, and otherwise seeds. The nest is made of grass, lined with hair or fine grass, and is usually built on the ground.
Quail
New World Quails
Quail is a collective name for several types of mid-sized birds in the pheasant family. The New World quails are small birds only distantly related to the quails of the Old World, but named for their similar appearance and habits. The quails are small, plump terrestrial birds. They are seed eaters, but will also take insects and similar small prey. They nest on the ground. They are capable of short, rapid bursts of flight.
Sardinian Warbler
Sardinian Warbler
The Sardinian Warbler is a common and widespread typical warbler found in the Mediterranean region. 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. This is a bird of open country and cultivation, with bushes for nesting.
Southern Grey Shrike
Southern Grey Shrike
This small bird is a member of the shrike family. The race resident in Europe and North Africa is closely related to the Great Grey Shrike, although as the name suggests, smaller, darker and prefers dry open country. The Southern Grey Shrike eats large insects, small birds, rodents and lizards. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, impaling prey on barbed wire or thorns.
Serin
Serin
The Serin is a large group of birds in the finch family found mostly in the afro-tropical regions with some species also being found in Europe and Asia. The majority of species are small to medium sized birds with green and yellow, often streaky plumage though there are a few notable exceptions. The eyes are large and are surrounded by a bright yellow ring. The beak is grey and the legs are pale pinkish-grey. The Syrian serin has a long trilling call, and may also chirp and twitter.
Greenfinch
Greenfinch
The European Greenfinch is a small bird in the finch family. This bird is widespread throughout Europe, north Africa and south west Asia. The Greenfinch is mainly green, with yellow in the wings and tail. The female and young birds are duller and have brown tones on the back. The bill is thick and conical. The song contains wheezes and twitters, and the male has a "butterfly" display flight.
Atlantic Canary
Atlantic Canary
The Canary - sometimes called the Island Canary, Wild Canary or Atlantic Canary - is a small bird in the finch family. It is native to the Azores, the Canary Islands, and Madeira. It is yellow-green, with brownish streaking on its back. It is about 10% larger, longer and less contrasted than its relative the Serin, and has more grey and brown in its plumage and relatively shorter wings.
Bulwer's Petrel
Bulwer's Petrel
This seabird breeds in the north Atlantic in colonies on islands in the Cape Verde Islands, Azores, Canary Islands and Madeira groups. After breeding, birds disperse to spend the rest of the year at sea, mainly in tropical waters. This very long-winged petrel is 25-29 cm in length with a 78-90 cm wingspan. It has mainly brown plumage and a long pointed tail. It has a buoyant twisting flight as it picks planktonic food items from the ocean surface.
Cory's
Cory's
Cory's is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. This species breeds on islands and cliffs in the Mediterranean, the nest is on open ground or among rocks or less often in a burrow where one white egg is laid, and is visited at night to minimise predation from large gulls. This bird flies with long glides, and always with wings bowed and angled slightly back. It has brownish-grey upperparts, white underparts and yellowish bill.
Little Shearwater
Little Shearwater
This bird has the typically "shearing" flight of the genus, dipping from side to side on stiff wings with few wingbeats, the wingtips almost touching the water, but in light winds has a more flapping flight than its larger relatives. This bird looks like a flying cross, with its wings held at right angles to the body, and it changes from black to white as the black upperparts and white undersides are alternately exposed as it travels low over the sea.
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