Mallorca - April 2023

A family trip to Mallorca to visit family over there presented a good opportunity to do some birdwatching abroad! My cousins live in Santa Ponca, a town and resort in the far west of the island, about 40 minutes drive from Palma. Pretty much all the birds I saw were opportunistic while walking around Santa Ponca, with a day trip to Palma on one day as well. This meant I was pretty limited in terms of what I could hope to see.

Arriving in the afternoon, in sunny but fairly cool weather, we were picked up from the airport and headed for my cousins' house. I hadn't been to Mallorca during spring for many years, so it was a real shock to see the place so green! Soon after arriving at their house, I added the first of the expected species - Common Swifts were abundant, Hoopoes were regular around the house and a few of the commoner species from home were present too like Blackbird, Greenfinch, Woodpigeon and Collared Dove. A Red Kite, which is a relatively common bird in Mallorca, cruised over the house at roof height. The highlight of the day though were two calling Scops Owls at dusk - unfortunately I never got eyes on them but it was awesome just to hear them.

On our first full day, me and my brother took a walk through Santa Ponca down to the seafront, where there is a small area of pine woodland which previously held the island's only Monk Parakeet population. I had my first lifer almost immediately, with a singing Serin along a nearby street. These turned out to be a very common species, with groups of 10+ at times. Sardinian Warblers were soon spotted, as were House Martins and Blackcaps. At the beach, Yellow-Legged Gulls and Audoin's Gulls were abundant and showed down to a few metres. The area of pine woodland was full of Hoopoes and we managed to spot an elusive Pied Flycatcher.

Serin were numerous throughout Santa Ponca

Sardinian Warblers were common but always elusive!

Hoopoes were common, including singing birds

The subsequent day was spent in Palma, where birds were noticeably scarcer! However, I did spot a pair of Peregrines on the Cathedral spires, until then I didn't even know they were on the island! Back at the house, I spent a while watching the mountains in the distance. These mountains are the western edge of the Serra de Tramuntana range, with peaks over a kilometre high. It wasn't long until I picked up another new species - Booted Eagles. Over the next few days I saw multiple individuals of both pale and dark morph birds, often interacting with Red Kites and Ravens.

I saw maybe 5+ Booted Eagles

The view of the mountains from the house - Ravens, Booted Eagles and Red Kites were common over the peaks

Doing some exploring around the fringes of Santa Ponca on Tuesday and Wednesday, I found a storm drain which travelled inland, where birds tended to congregate in order to drink. I picked out a Common Sandpiper along the channel. In adjacent arable fields, Red-Legged Partridge were present, as was a singing Stonechat, multiple Swallows and another new species for me - Zitting Cisticola. These birds were difficult to pin down as they performed strange, parachute-like flights, uttering a single-note call.

On  Wednesday, we were trying to explore a little further afield and found an olive grove. Peering over the fence, we immediately spotted a Stone Curlew. However, as we turned around we noticed the police pulling up. A bit of broken Spanish from myself seemed to convince them we weren't up to anything dodgy! Nevertheless, we headed back just in case, noting a few Linnet and Goldfinch. A Cetti's Warbler was heard in a reedy channel near the restaurant we were eating that evening, though this was quickly forgotten as we spotted several Bottlenose Dolphins swimming past in the bay!

On the final day, we went on an early morning walk along a cycling route to Peguera. We saw a few Booted Eagles and picked up Chaffinch, but the highlight was an extremely showy Firecrest, which tried to land on my hand at one point! 

Firecrests were common in pine woodland

This bird almost tried to land on my hand!

I ended with 36 species seen plus 2 heard only, with 3 lifers. Hopefully, in the near future, I can come back to Mallorca for a proper birding holiday!