Carduelis citrinella
Carduelis citrinella
This species is distributed exclusively in southwestern Europe, from the Alpine arc to the Iberian Peninsula (Keller et al., 2020; BirdLife International, 2024). In Spain, it inhabits forested areas at moderate altitudes, mainly in the mountain systems of the northern half of the peninsula, with occupancy varying over the years. It occurs in the Pyrenees, Basque mountains, and Cantabrian Range. In the Central System, the Iberian System, and in enclaves of the Betic ranges such as Sierra Nevada and Cazorla, it occupies the supramediterranean zone (Borràs and Senar in SEO/BirdLife, 2022). It is absent from Ceuta, Melilla, and the archipelagos.
In the Community of Madrid, it occurs throughout the mountain area above 1,200 meters, as well as in some southwestern pine forests. It exclusively occupies high-mountain pine forests and broomlands, as well as some montane black pine forests (Díaz et al., 1994).
Within the national park, it has been detected in Scots pine forests in three areas of the protected space, with the highest abundances around the Navacerrada pass forested area, the pine forests near Cotos pass, and in the northeastern end on the forested slopes of Navafría pass. It is neither rare nor very scarce within the park.
The citril finch’s preferred habitat is the subalpine pine forests of the Pyrenees, where it reaches its highest densities (Borràs et al., 2012). Following in use and importance are the Scots pine forests of the Central and Iberian massifs and Sierra Nevada. It also occupies, with interannual variation, the laricio pine forests in the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees, the Iberian System, Sierra Nevada, and the Cazorla-Segura ranges. These year-to-year variations are due to opportunistic breeding events, gathering birds from different origins and reaching high densities. In the Cantabrian Cornice and the Basque Country, it occupies open beech forests and montane grasslands with patches of Pinus radiata.
In the national park, it maintains high densities in mature Scots pine forests, especially above 1,700 m a.s.l. It is also common in areas with shrubs, but always within forested zones.
At the global scale, it is considered in the Near Threatened category (LC; 2017). In Europe, it would also be classified in the same category (NT; 2021). In Spain, the peninsular populations are considered Near Threatened in the 2021 Red List.
The Catalogue of Threatened Species of the Community of Madrid (1992) considers the species in the ‘Of Special Interest’ threat category.
BirdLife International 2024. IUCN Red List for birds. https://datazone.birdlife.org.
Borràs, A., Cabrera, J., Colome, X. y Senar, J. C. 2012. Una revisión sobre las metapoblaciones de verderón serrano: patrones y movimientos. Revista de Anillamiento, 29-30: 8-24.
Díaz, M., Martí, R., Gómez-Manzaneque, Á. y Sánchez, A. 1994. Atlas de las aves nidificantes en Madrid. Agencia de Medio Ambiente y SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.
Keller, V., Herrando, S., Voříšek, P., Franch, M., Kipson, M., Milanesi, P., Martí, D., Antón, M., Klvaňová, A., Kalyakin, M. V. Bauer, H. Gr y Foppen, R. P. B. 2020. European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Birds Census Council y Lynx Edicions. Barcelona.
SEO/BirdLife (Molina, B., Nebreda, A., Muñoz, A. R., Seoane, J., Real, R., Bustamante, J. y Del Moral, J. C., eds.). 2022. III Atlas de las aves en época de reproducción en España. SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.