The Canary Islands stonechat (''Saxicola dacotiae''), also known as the Fuerteventura stonechat or Fuerteventura chat, and formerly known as the Canary Islands chat due to its once widespread distribution on the Canary Islands, is a sedentary resident bird found only on the island of Fuerteventura where it is known as the ''Caldereta''.

Taxonomy

The Canary Islands stonechat is a small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

that was classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an

Old World flycatcher The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Northe ...

in the Muscicapidae. It, and similar small

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, are often called chats. It was included in the "common stonechat" (''Saxicola torquata''), but it is quite distinct; it is likely to be an insular derivative of ancestral

European stonechat The European stonechat (''Saxicola rubicola'') is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a subspecies of the common stonechat. Long considered a member of the thrush family, Turdidae, genetic evidence has placed it and its relat ...

s that colonised the islands some 1-2 mya, during the Early Pleistocene (Wink ''et al.'' 2002).

Description

The Canary Islands stonechat is intermediate in appearance between the European stonechat and the

whinchat The whinchat (''Saxicola rubetra'') is a small migratory passerine bird breeding in Europe and western Asia and wintering in central Africa. At one time considered to be in the thrush family, Turdidae, it is now placed in the Old World flycat ...

; its body size and shape reminiscent of a lithe

European robin The European robin (''Erithacus rubecula''), known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in Great Britain & Ireland, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the chat subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family. About in len ...

. Its upperparts are generally coloured as the whinchat, but more contrasting, dark brown with a blackish head and back streaks. It has a purer white supercilium reaching behind the eye and white neck sides, and a light orangey-chestnut breast becoming duller and paler on the underside towards the whitish belly. The rump and tail are dark, the latter with a white pattern visible in flight. There is also a white wing band. The female is similar to a washed-out version of the male, with a brown, black-streaked head and no white neck patches. The male has a ticking call like a pebble hitting another, and a high twittering song like a European stonechat.

Ecology

This Canary Islands stonechat is highly faithful to good

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

. Its main occurrence and only breeding habitat is in ''barrancos'', ravines and rocky slopes with fairly sparse (30-50% open ground), shrubby vegetation (Illera ''et al.'', 2006). Although they sometimes also venture into more open and

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...

areas such as ''malpaís'' (old

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

flows with resurgent vegetation), the species prefers copses of

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

s and shrubs (Álamo Tavío 1975) such as the aulaga '' Launaea arborescens'', the saltwort ''

Caroxylon vermiculatum ''Caroxylon vermiculatum'', commonly known as Mediterranean saltwort, is a perennial plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It has many synonyms, including ''Salsola vermiculata'' and ''Nitrosalsola vermiculata''. It is native to arid and semi-arid ...

'' and the

boxthorn ''Lycium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The genus has a disjunct distribution around the globe, with species occurring on most continents in temperate and subtropical regions. South America has the most ...

'' Lycium intricatum'' (BirdLife International 2004). Males sing from exposed perches, from where the birds also like to hunt insects on the wing; occasionally, they venture into fields or gardens for feeding. Completely open habitat appears only to be utilised when gathering food for their young (BirdLife International 2004). Laying 4-5 eggs per clutch and incubating for 13 days, it usually manages to raise two clutches of young a year.

Conservation status

This Canary Islands stonechat is now considered

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

, as construction, mainly

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

-related, encroaches upon the best habitat (Illera ''et al.'', 2006). The population is hard to estimate, but most probably between 1300 and 1700 mature birds (BirdLife International 2004), and recognisably in decline. In particular, heavy land clearance on the

Jandía Jandía is a peninsula in the southwestern part of the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. The peninsula is entirely in the municipality of Pájara. Within the peninsula is Fuerteventura's tallest mountain, Pico de Jandía or ''Pico de ...

peninsula is isolating the local subpopulation and making it vulnerable to adverse effects of

small population size Small populations can behave differently from larger populations. They are often the result of population bottlenecks from larger populations, leading to loss of heterozygosity and reduced genetic diversity and loss or fixation of alleles and s ...

. Desertification, exacerbated by grazing

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

s and locally sinking

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

s, has also contributed to habitat loss.

Feral cat A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...

s and black rats prey on the eggs and young. A conservation action plan has existed for this species since 1999 (BirdLife International 2004). Due to its fairly high reproductive rate, if enough habitat is secured and predators are kept at bay, it should be able to hold its own. The Chinijo chat, subspecies ''murielae'' from the

Chinijo Archipelago The Chinijo Archipelago () is a small archipelago located in the northeastern part of the Canary Islands, north of the island of Lanzarote. The archipelago includes the islets of Montaña Clara, Alegranza, La Graciosa, Roque del Este and Roque ...

near Lanzarote, became extinct in the early 20th century. Usually claimed as mainly due to deteriorating habitat quality, the extinction may be more due to the effect of introduced predators. It was only reported to inhabit two offshore islands (

Montaña Clara Montaña Clara () (Spanish meaning "light-colored mountain") is a small uninhabited islet belonging to the Chinijo Archipelago, in the northeastern part of the Canary Islands, only a short distance (about ) northwest of La Graciosa Gracios ...

and

Alegranza Alegranza () is an uninhabited island in the Atlantic Ocean, located off the coast of Africa and is in the province of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, Spain. It is the northernmost point in the Canary Islands, and part of the Chinijo Archipela ...

References

* BirdLife International (2006)
Species factsheet: ''Saxicola dacotiae''
. Retrieved 2006-DEC-12. * *Illera, Juan Carlos; Díaz, Mario & Nogales, Manuel (2006): Ecological traits influence the current distribution and range of an island endemic bird. '' J. Biogeogr.'' 33(7): 1192–1201. (HTML abstract) *Wink, M.; Sauer-Gürth, H. & Gwinner, E. (2002): Evolutionary relationships of stonechats and related species inferred from mitochondrial-DNA sequences and genomic fingerprinting. '' Brit. Birds'' 95: 349–355
PDF fulltext

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1587242 Canary Islands stonechat Birds of the Canary Islands Canary Islands stonechat Taxa named by Edmund Meade-Waldo