Common name: Canary Tit
Scientific name: Cyanistes teneriffae spp. degenerate
Status: Vulnerable. Localized and rare.
Habitat and distribution: Restricted in Fuerteventura to ravine beds with tamarisk and palm trees, fruit-growing areas and some urban gardens such as those in Pájara or Toto.
How to recognize it: Very active and singing small forest bird. The disappearance of the forests in Fuerteventura has cornered it to a few places with trees and water. When located, it is very easy to see due to the striking combination of blue and yellow colors in the plumage.
Curiosities: Majorero blue tits belong to the degener subspecies, one of the five exclusive taxa of this bird existing in the Canary Islands and which it only shares with Lanzarote. The first Canary Blue Tits arrived in the Archipelago about four million years ago, two million years before the famous Galapagos finches studied by Darwin.
In Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria it receives the popular name of alegría, a clear proof of the affection that is felt for it.
