Fauna

Wide diversity, endemisms and great vulnerability are the main characteristics of our fauna.

We mainly find an abundance of birds, many of them migratory: hoopoes (upupa epops), owls (Tyto alba), kestrels (Falco tinnunculus), booted eagles (Hieraaetus pennatus), white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla), seagulls (Laridae), game birds like the partridge (Alectoris rufa) and quail (Coturnix), and other small birds such as the sparrow (Passeridae).

The most common scrubland birds are the small insect-eating varieties such as the sedge warbler (Sylvia melanocephala) and the robin (Erithacus rubeula). In the pine groves you can see insectivores such as the coal tit (Parus Major), the wren (Troglodytes) and the greenfinch (Carduelis chloris). Farmland with high rates of food production is popular with many species, including the common stonechat (Saxicola torquata), the Thekla lark (Galerida theklae), the red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) and, in winter, the thrush (Turdus philomelos). On the coast it is very common to observe sea birds including the seagull (Larus michahellis), the cormorant (Phalacrocorax arstotelis) and the Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea).

The local reptiles are also interesting. They include the western false smooth snake (Macroprotodon brevis), Lilford’s wall lizard (Podarcis lilfordi), usually found on walls, the green toad (Bufotes viridis) and Hermann’s tortoise (Testudo hermanni).

Of particular note among the mammal vertebrates are the hedgehog, the weasel (Mustela nivalis), rodents such as the garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus) and hares and rabbits.

As far as marine fauna is concerned, near the shores there is an abundance of rock fish and those that like to live in shallow waters. They include the comber (Serranus caprilla), the salema porgy (Sarpa salpa), the saddled sea bream (Oblada melanura), red scorpionfish (Scorpaena scrofa), moray eels (Muraenidae), grouper (Epinephelinae), razorfish (Xyrichtys novacula), cockles (Carduelis chloris), white bream and gilthead sea bream, as well as Mallorcan lobster (Nephrops norvegicus). In rocky areas we find a large number of sea urchins (Echinoidea) and farther out to sea, squid, cuttlefish and lobster, among other species.