Bird Watching in the Canary Islands

The Canary islands are becoming more and more popular with tourists interested in Ornithology – bird watching to you and me. The islands position lie in the path of a lot of migratory birds and each spring and autumn brings not only many different bird species but also the enthusiasts with their cameras and binoculars.

The islands have recognised this for many years, particularly on Fuerteventura and Lanzarote the two islands closest to Africa, and have created more bird watching sites in the existing natural parks and recently in the protected marine areas, specifically Jandia (Fuereventura) and the islets north of Famara (Lanzarote).

Its not only the tourists that benefit from this, a growing number of islanders are becoming interested in the wildlife that visit our shores and are forming conservation groups that are
involved in ringing and cataloguing the birds through to protecting the natural
heritage of the areas the birds come to.

All this work is important in many ways such as monitoring the present bird populations through to evaluating the effect of global climate change.
These special bird havens are classified as ZEPA zones and the Canaries have 43 such areas covering 277,000 hectares, and of course these specials areas also benefit the flora and fauna.
So everybody benefits, the birds get a rest, the bird watchers get a break andthe island gets protected.....for everyone.