Climate change, pesticides, a shrinking rural landscape, the abandonment of traditional farming practices, poaching, power lines, wind turbines, pollution, and intensive agriculture are the main drivers behind bird declines in Spain. About a quarter of the country’s species fall into one of the risk categories, and nearly twenty are classified as critically endangered.
The Atlas of Birds in Spain during the Breeding Season III, recently published by SEO/BirdLife, details the status of 450 bird species recorded in Spain. Four species are on the brink of disappearance: the Cantabrian capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus cantabricus), the marble teal (Marmaronetta angustirostris), the lesser shrike, and the kitty (Rissa tridactyla). Two others are already severely threatened: the Andalusian torillo (Turnix sylvaticus) and the common guillemot (Uria aalge).
cantabrian caper
The known range of this emblematic bird has contracted by 36 percent over the last two decades, and its overall population has declined by 45 percent. From its historical presence across the Cantabrian mountain system from Galicia to Cantabria and Palencia in 1974, it now occupies only small pockets in northern León and western Asturias.
A recent study by experts from the Forest Stewardship Council, SEO/BirdLife, and the Biodiversity Foundation found that only about 290 individuals remain, with two thirds males and one third females facing a fragile future.
A separate study last year noted that 79.5 percent of capercaillie habitats lie in Castilla y León, with major clusters in Alto Sil and Omaña, while the remaining 20.5 percent are on the Asturian slope, particularly in the Narcea Springs natural area and in Degana and Ibias. No signs of presence were detected in the eastern reaches of the Cantabrian range.
marble teal
Known as Europe’s most endangered duck, this species once thrived in macrotidal wetlands like Doñana but has seen its Spanish range shrink by about 40 percent over the past twenty years. The latest atlas confirms its disappearance from the Region of Murcia and the Canary Islands.
Today, its remaining presence is confined to a handful of Mediterranean coastal wetlands in Andalusia and Valencia, with a single interior site, Tablas de Daimiel National Park, showing very limited and irregular breeding. A small breeding nucleus is found on Majorca in the Balearic Islands.
Since the 2014 National Strategy for conservation, a noticeable portion of breeding pairs have arisen from captive breeding programs, with documented releases contributing to Doñana, the Valencia community, and the Balearic Islands.
Little Shrike
Reproductive nuclei in Girona (extinct in 2002) and Huesca (2010) left only a 10-kilometer radius within which pairs managed to reproduce. Currently, nesting is confined to Lleida in the Segrià region, within the southeast sector of the Ebro depression.
After a steep decline in the early 2000s, the Little Shrike dropped by more than 85 percent. Since 2002, annual releases of hatchlings in captivity began in 2009, aiming to bolster the wild population.
All birds returning to the breeding site since 2018 were either reared for hacking or born in wild nests near the adults released in earlier years. The atlas notes no repeat bandless samples detected.
kitty seagull
This species has long had a very limited range, confined to two coastal locations near A Coruña since it first bred in the 1970s. Between 1998 and 2002 there were only two known colonies: Sisargas Islands and Cape Vilán islets.
In recent years, the area has seen a change in breeding status, and breeding there was abandoned between 2008 and 2012. Today, its breeding presence is strictly limited to the Sisargas Islands colony.
The latest edition of the SEO/BirdLife Atlas warns that the Baby Gull in Spain is on the verge of extinction if it has not already reached that point, since since 2017 there has been no confirmed breeding in the country.
common guillemot
In the Breeding Birds Atlas (1998-2002) two colonies in Galicia disappeared to the point where the common murre breeding population is now extinct in Spain.
Nesting along the Galician coast has been recorded since the late 19th century, and the species was once abundant in Galicia in the mid-20th century, with about 3,000 individuals across at least eight colonies from A Coruña to Pontevedra.
Beginning in the 1960s, Galician colonies entered a period of marked decline, with many disappearing within a few years. The decline is linked to several factors, including the introduction and spread of nylon nets that birds struggle to detect in water.
Andalusian Torillo
The species has not been recorded in Spain for several years. Its range was limited to the Andalusian lowlands, especially coastal zones in Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Málaga, and Granada, occupying grasslands and low shrubs on an oceanic climate on the thermo-Mediterranean floor.
The latest records show birds seen in the El Rocío area in Doñana in 1981. Since then, unconfirmed sightings have appeared in Cádiz and Huelva, suggesting the species may persist into the 1990s.
By 2018, the Andalusian bullfinch was cataloged as extinct within national borders. Current conservation needs focus on Morocco and exploring potential populations in Algeria to sustain diverse genetic lines.
Atlas of Birds in the Breeding Season in Spain: atlasaves.seo.org
Environment department contact address is not published here. The document emphasizes the ongoing need for proactive conservation strategies across Spain and neighboring regions to safeguard these fragile populations.