Saxicola rubicola
Saxicola rubicola
This is a species with a Western Palearctic distribution (BirdLife International, 2024). In Europe it extends across much of the continent and is only absent from the northern half of Fennoscandia and Russia (Keller et al., 2020). In Spain it is widely distributed throughout the Iberian Peninsula, is also present in the Balearic Islands and breeds in Ceuta, but is absent from Melilla and the Canary Islands (Barceló-Serra and Gordo in SEO/BirdLife, 2022).
In Madrid it occupies much of the autonomous community but is rarer in the centre and the southeasternmost areas. In the north it inhabits open juniper woodlands, ash woodlands and grasslands in the foothills and mountain areas, while in the south and east it occupies irrigated crops and reedbeds. It is also present in open shrublands, both in mountain and lowland areas (Díaz et al., 1994).
In the national park it extends throughout the protected area, occupying grasslands and montane shrublands in the highest-altitude zones.
This species occupies open and cleared areas such as wastelands, moorlands, herbaceous crops and grasslands, as long as there is some coverage of shrubs, field margins, scrub or rocky outcrops. It is common in degraded areas of peri-urban zones, and in addition to trees or shrubs, it also uses artificial structures as perching sites (SEO/BirdLife, 2022).
At a global scale, it is listed as Least Concern (LC; 2020). In Europe it would also be classified in the same category (LC; 2020). In Spain it is considered Least Concern in the 2021 Red List.
The Catalogue of Threatened Species of the Community of Madrid (1992) does not place the species in any threat category.
BirdLife International 2024. IUCN Red List for birds. https://datazone.birdlife.org.
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.