Wildlife spectacles in Spain
28 spectacles through the year, ordered by when they peak. Open Spain in the interactive calendar for the map and listening times.
Houbara bustard display on the Canary steppesSilent theatre: a male running in circles with neck plumes thrown over his head like a white ball, visible for a kilometre at dawn. The soundscape is the trade wind, lesser short-toed larks, stone-curlews and coursers at first light — the plains are otherwise among the quietest places in Spain.
Pilot whales of Teno–Rasca, TenerifeWith a hydrophone: pilot whale whistles and clicks from a resident population of about 500 animals in deep water only 2–3 km offshore; above water, resting groups blowing quietly between boats.
Griffon cliffs: Hoces del Duratón, Hoces del Riaza and MonfragüeA griffon colony settling at dusk is a surprisingly loud thing: hisses, grunts and cackles from hundreds of birds squabbling over ledges, the rush of wings passing at head height, choughs and alpine swifts along the wall and, after dark in winter, eagle owls hooting across the gorge.
Balearic shearwater & storm petrel islandsHoarse, cackling Balearic shearwaters arriving to cliff burrows after dark, storm petrels purring in cave crevices, Audouin's gull colonies and Eleonora's falcons screaming over the sea in late summer.
Spring frog & toad choruses of the Andalusian marshesMassive Perez's frog choruses from the temporary lagoons, tree frog 'crra-crra' from the marsh edge, natterjack ratchets across the dune slacks, spadefoots' hen-like clucking from underwater, plus stone-curlews, red-necked nightjars and scops owls.
Great bustard & little bustard displayGreat bustards are almost silent in display (a low grunt and the rustle of the 'foam bath' plumage), but little bustards give their dry 'prrrt' snort and wing-whistle jump, sandgrouse call in flight and calandra larks sing continuously overhead.
Steppe dawn: Dupont's lark and the Belchite larksDupont's lark's strange nasal, ventriloquial phrases from the dark steppe, then a wall of calandra lark song at sunrise, sandgrouse and stone-curlews — one of Europe's rarest dawn choruses.
Fuente de Piedra: the great flamingo colonyTwenty thousand flamingos honking, growling and gabbling across a flat salt lagoon — the colony is a continuous roar from kilometres away on a still morning — with the goose-like flight calls of flocks commuting to feed, gull-billed terns and stilts yelping over the shallows.
Dawn chorus of the Mediterranean scrub and dehesaNightingales as the backbone, golden orioles fluting from the poplars, azure-winged magpie flocks rasping through the cork oaks, hoopoes, bee-eaters and cuckoos — the classic Iberian spring chorus.
Lesser kestrel colonies of TrujilloA colony of small falcons chattering — the 'chay-chay-chay' and trilling of dozens of lesser kestrels over the bullring roof, swifts screaming through the Plaza Mayor, storks clattering on the church towers and the market noise of an Extremaduran town beneath it.
Islas Cíes & Ons seabird coloniesOne of the world's largest yellow-legged gull colonies in full cry on the cliff tops, shags grunting on the ledges, and at night the recently established Cory's shearwaters and storm petrels over the Atlantic side.
Ebro Delta: Audouin's gulls, terns and flamingosAudouin's gull colony (historically over half the world population at Punta de la Banya) as a nasal, laughing wall of sound, tern colonies screaming over the salt pans, flamingos honking across the lagoons, and frogs in the rice fields at night.
Cory's shearwater colonies of the CanariesThe wailing, sobbing 'pardela' chorus from thousands of birds over sea cliffs — the sound behind the Canarian mermaid legends — with the Atlantic swell and Bulwer's petrels' soft barking.
Red-necked nightjar nightsThe Iberian nightjar's knocking 'kutuk-kutuk-kutuk' — slower and woodier than the European nightjar's churr — from dozens of birds in stone-pine and dehesa, with scops owls and stone-curlews, and the birds sitting on the warm tracks in the headlights.
Cicadas of the Spanish pinewoodsContinuous cicada chorus from Aleppo and stone pines — Cicada orni's ticking pulses over Lyristes' saw — with the sea and, at dusk, bush-crickets taking over.
Orcas hunting bluefin tuna in the StraitWith a hydrophone: orca calls and echolocation, pilot whale whistles, and the tuna-boat engines they hunt around. Above water: blows, and the shouts from the fishing boats.
Iberian wolf howling, Sierra de la CulebraPack choruses with pups' yips across the heather-and-pine sierra, roe deer barks, and the deep quiet of one of the emptiest corners of Spain.
Strait of Gibraltar: raptor & stork passageMostly visual — kettles of thousands — but bee-eater flocks pour over calling all day, honey buzzards pass at head height in a levante, and the stork pre-roost at Los Lances is a bill-clattering crowd.
Seabird passage at Estaca de BaresMostly a scope spectacle — over a million seabirds a year round Spain's northernmost point — but the gale, the surf on the rocks and passing gannet flocks make a raw Atlantic ambience.
La berrea in the Cantabrian mountainsRoars bouncing off limestone walls in high beech and oak valleys — a longer, harder reverb than the southern dehesa — with wolves occasionally answering and cowbells far below.
La berrea — Monfragüe, Cabañeros & Sierra MorenaStags roaring across dehesa and rocky sierra — three or four bellowing at once from the Monfragüe viewpoints while griffon vultures settle on the cliffs; wild boar and little owls in between.
Cantabrian mountains: chamois rut, bears and wallcreepersChamois whistling alarms and clattering hooves on limestone, alpine chough flocks, wallcreeper thin whistles from the gorge walls, bells and the Cares river; bears are silent and distant.
Cranes at Laguna de GallocantaUp to 100,000 cranes lifting off the salt lagoon at first light in a continuous trumpeting roar that lasts half an hour, then skeins bugling over the steppe villages.
Iberian ibex rut, Sierra de GredosHorn clashes cracking across granite cirques, males snorting and chasing, and the near-total silence of the high sierra in early winter.
Wintering cranes in the Extremadura dehesaTens of thousands of cranes flying into the roosts at sunset in wave after wave, bugling in the acorn dehesa by day, with wintering lapwings, golden plovers and greylags.
Wintering greylags at VillafáfilaWaves of greylags leaving the saline lagoons at first light in a continuous honking chorus, with great bustards grunting on the stubble and cranes overhead.
Doñana in winter: geese and the marismasTens of thousands of greylags calling at first light, wigeon whistling in rafts, flamingos honking, glossy ibis colonies grunting, and the near-total absence of roads in the marsh core.
Iberian lynx mating calls, Sierra de AndújarLoud, hoarse caterwauling and 'meows' between males and females carrying across the scrub at dawn; red deer, wild boar and eagle owls in the same valleys. Mostly a sighting spectacle.