The birds of the Madeira are still rather poor known and most birdwatchers visiting the islands today may well contribute to the knowledge concerning breeding species, regularly migrating birds, as well as rarities. There is at the moment no official list of the Birds of Madeira and the only official document can be found in the book A Birdwatchers Guide to Portugal and Madeira (C. C. Moore et al. 1997). This list is rather out of date and do not correspond very well with all new knowledge accumulated in recent years. The full species list available on this page, however, built much of the list mention above, but have been modified and updated regularly.
When trying to give a fair description of the birds of the Madeiran archipelago there is a problem of documentation and acceptance. Many reports of birds seen on the islands do not reach the Portuguese Rarity Committee, or no documentation or rarity reports are presented. Since the bird fauna in the Madeira are poorly known, the committee has chosen to demand rarity description for a wide range of species. This, combined with the fact that many observers are foreign visitors and that their skills and prolonged use of field documentation are unknown to the committee has made the level of documentation needed for an acceptance very high. A number of sightings have therefore been rejected, many of which would probably been approved by northern European rarity committees.
Since the subject in this matter only is to describe the bird fauna in the Madeira archipelago and the number of species visiting birdwatchers may expect to see, I have chosen to present all available data. It is therefore up to the reader to make his own judgement of the right status of the birds recorded in Madeira. In a near future the numbers of records for rare species will be added to the list.
or download the full species list here» (PDF 24KB) Updated
on 26th February 2006.
Bird trip list
to Madeira in PDF format
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for the Madeira visitor
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