Curruca iberiae
Curruca iberiae
This species is a split from the previous taxon Sylvia cantillans, which encompassed a complex of circummediterranean species (Zuccon et al., 2020; BirdLife International, 2024). The Iberian Sardinian warbler of the western Mediterranean inhabits the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, and parts of northwestern Africa and Italy (Keller et al., 2020). In Spain, it is widely distributed in the northern half in Mediterranean climate zones and is less common in the Eurosiberian region (Pérez-Granados & Calleja in SEO/BirdLife, 2022).
In Madrid, it is abundant and can be found in various shrubland and forest habitats in both the western and eastern parts, but it is absent from urban or periurban areas and cereal crop or pasture areas (Díaz et al., 1994).
Within the National Park, most of the population is located in the southern zone, in piedmont areas and low-altitude scrubland with abundant shrub and open matorral on the slopes of Becerril and eastward along the piedmont of the Sierra de los Porrones, reaching the southeastern end in the Dehesa Boyal and the lower areas of La Pedriza. The Lozoya Valley population is scarce.
The western Iberian warbler (Curruca iberiae) inhabits open forest and shrubland communities, composed mainly of Mediterranean species such as holm oaks and cork oaks, gall oaks, marcescent oaks, junipers, and savinas. It prefers semi-open and transitional areas, such as dense rockrose and heathland, vegetative mosaics, and ecotone edges between broadleaf or pine forests and shrubland.
Within the National Park, the highest densities occur in areas with shrub-dominated and open matorral mixed with pastures. High densities are also found in open areas due to the park’s altitude and the abundance of these zones, as long as there is a sufficient proportion of shrubs, which is the preferred habitat of the species.
At the global scale, the western Iberian warbler (Curruca iberiae) is classified as Least Concern (LC; 2018). In Europe, it is also considered Least Concern (LC; 2020). In Spain, it is listed as Least Concern in the 2021 Red List.
The Catalogue of Threatened Species of the Community of Madrid (1992) does not list this 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.
Zuccon, D., Pons, J.M., Boano, G., Chiozzi, G., Gamauf, A., Mengoni, C., Nespoli, D., Olioso, G., Pavia, M., Pellegrino, I., Raković, M., Randi, E., Rguibi Idrissi, H., Touihri, M., Unsöld, M., Vitulano, S. y Brambilla, M. 2020. Type specimens matter: new insights on the systematics, taxonomy and nomenclature of the subalpine warbler (Sylvia cantillans) complex. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 190: 314–341.