Common name: Trumpeter bullfinch
Scientific name: Bucanetes githagineus ssp. amantum
Status: Widespread species in North Africa, it has small and scattered populations in the arid landscapes of the southeast peninsular and the Canary Islands. In the latter, an endemic subspecies breeds, whose populations are in decline.
Habitat and distribution: It occupies desert environments, especially rocky sites, ravines, slopes, badlands and abandoned crops. Present in Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, the south of Gran Canaria, La Graciosa, Lobos and Alegranza.
How to recognize it: Unmistakable with its short, robust and pink beak. Also because of the peculiar song that it emits both perched and in flight, prolonged nasal sounds, buzzing, long and short, like a trumpet; hence its popular name.
Curiosities: In the Canary Islands it is known by the popular name of pispo or Moorish bird. Their populations are seriously threatened, which is why in the Red Book of the birds of Spain they are given the category of “Endangered”. The most important threat comes from the loss of habitat due to urban development, which leads to the fragmentation and irreversible loss of suitable places for nesting and feeding.
