Nature tours in Andalusia: birding and biodiversity

Andalusia is part of the Mediterranean Global Hotspot… This website celebrates its biodiversity and have dedicated pages for many groups. Check our Big Five of species to see in Andalusia.

Migration is a huge spectacle, being the Strait of Gibraltar one of the most important area of passage for birds and sea mammals in the world. Join the tours in automn and spring. This nature show has to bee foreseen once in a life and is a major attraction to visit Andalusia.

Doñana is one of the most famous wetland in the world. It is treathened, but “Doñana remains Doñana” and birds are still plenty. We of course offer a terrific Doñana tour to discover in-depth the National Park.

Geronticus eremita was, not so long ago, one of the most threatened birds in the world. It was reintroduced successfully in Andalusia. Bald ibis are truly iconic with their unfeathered red head and preferring coastal dry habitats and arid mountain cliffs.

Hardly known 20 years ago, it is now the most famous protected area in Sierra Morena, the refuge for large mammals and raptors. We prefer to visit the park in winter searching for lynx and Imperial eagle.

Grazalema N.P. and Serranía de Ronda is a superb mountain range with high biodiversity, forests of the rare Spanish Fir and excelent mountain birdlife. Join our ecotour.

The most recently declared National Park, Sierra de Las Nieves offers nice treks and a unique high-altitude mediterranean climate zone in Western Andalusia. For sure, a botanical hotspot. Count One day walk to the top.

It is delightful to discover the National Park from Granada. Moutains of highest altitude in the Iberian Peninsula (3479 m). Hotspot for endemic jewels (plants, invertebrates) and mountain birds.

Butterflies (150 species), dragonflies (67 species), grasshoppers (190 species) and all insect orders are very well represented in Andalusia, with a rich fauna of 1) typical widespread Mediterranean species 2) northern species restricted to mountain ranges 3) and Sierras Beticas’ endemics of restricted range. Every year new species are still described from this region.

High rate of endemism in the flora, amphibians, fish… Betic moutains range are currently altitude islands but were once trully a large island between Africa and Europe. Such conditions favour a rich and diverse flora in southern Spain, which in turn correlates with high invertebrates biodiversity.

More than half a million water birds (90 species of waterfowl, waders and other marsh birds) spend the winter in Andalusia, one of the most important “winter quarters” in Europe.

Mediterranean shrublands are diverse and very rich in Andalusia and their blossoms picturesque. Wood pastures / parklands, known localy as dehesa, are also a Spanish specialty: low density forest without shrubs.

Serranía de Ronda is rugged and filled with crags that enjoy three must-see birds resident in Spain: Black wheatear, Blue song trush and Bonelli eagle

Ronda offers one of the most suggestive and best preserved landscapes in all of Andalusia. Join one of my favourite walk to discover The Gash (El Tajo).

The Ruta de los pueblos blancos, unalterable attraction for travelers, takes the paths of the Serranía de Ronda, Grazalema and ventures into the Valley of the Genal (site guide). It is difficult to find a more attractive landscape: immaculate villages perched on steep slopes and densely covered by forest. One of the many ecotours we offer.

Come at the village of Benarrabá (complete guide of activities and accomodation) and observe the lively rural traditions.

In the center, there is the Depression of the river GUADALQUIVIR VALLEY, a large agricultural plain -extremely fertile- and mostly dedicated to intensive agriculture. Farmland birds still occupy those pseudo-steppes.

This area is an old arm of the sea with loose and easily cultivable rock substrate soil. The Guadalquivir was the main means of communication in the region for centuries and the backbone between the cities of Seville and Cordoba. The river opens to the Atlantic Ocean south of Seville at Doñana .

To the South, the BETIC MOUNTAINS, the 800 km long mountain range that extends from the Strait of Gibraltar to Mallorca (!). It is a young mountain chain, contemporary to the Alps, formed when the African plate collided with the European one. The rocks, mainly of limestone, form karst reliefs with large cliffs.

The Sierra Nevada, formed by metamorphic rocks, dominates the Betic Mountain Range with 20 peaks over 3,000 meters above sea level.

THE COAST, contact zone between the land and the sea, extends through Andalusia along almost 1,000 km in length. The Atlantic coast is organized around the Guadalquivir estuary with long cords of dunes and sandy arrows. The Mediterranean coast is bordered by mountains and is characterized by small, narrow beaches, sometimes hidden and picturesque, or overcrowded and urbanized.

THE SEA: the Alboran Sea is the stretch of the Mediterranean Sea between Andalusia and the Maghreb and limited to the west by the Strait of Gibraltar. Its origin comes from the Atlantic waterfall that broke the land bridge between the two continents. Its seabed attests to it. Currently, strong marine currents exchange waters with salinity, temperature and density differentiated in both directions between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The average depth is 1 000 meters, down to 2,200 m, which creates upward movements rich in nutrients favorable to marine life, particularly fish.

CLIMATIC FACTORS. Overall, Mediterranean climate -dry and hot summers, mild and wet winters- dominates Andalusia. But we find much variation thanks to its geographical and topographical conditions.

Andalusia’s southern latitude explains its high temperatures in lowlands compared with the rest of continental Europe.

Winter/spring climatic conditions in mountain ranges are more diverse… with cold-dry climates (Baza), cold-wet (Cazorla-Segura), hot-wet (Grazalema and Alcornocales) and hot-dry (East Sierra Morena). At the highest altitudes of Sierra Nevada and the Betic range, an original mediterranean moutain climate create climatic islands.

The Atlantic Ocean brings humidity from the South-West while the east is really dry and near desertic.

GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS. Andalusia is located at a crossroad between Africa and Europe from one hand, and the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea on the other hand. With the Messinian crisis, a bridge connected the two continental land masses.

The Betic mountain range, south of the Guadalquivir was largely an island for a few millions years, forstering the speciation process and explaining the high rate of endemics.

Andalusia is a maritime region, with a coastline of 1.000 km, where biodiversity is always high (deep sea, dunes and sea cliffs, coastal climate), and bathed by two very different seas.

At the Strait of Gibraltar, marine, coastal and continental vertebrates congregate for their massive migrating movements.

HISTORICAL FACTORS. Andalusia has always been a land favourable to the development of civilizations since historical times (see History of Andalusia). Bathed by the Mediterranean sea, this territory has seen huge trade and introduction of plants and animals from the Maghreb and Eastern Mediterraenan Bassin since Antiquity, with a second surge from the New World after 1492. But at the same time, mountains remain largely inhabited and nowadays, many areas are still very little populated. Farmers and shepherds favoured back in the time strong populations of steppic birds and vultures populations.

ECOLOGICAL FACTORS. From sea level to mountain tops, the full array of Mediterranean ecosystems can be found in Andalusia.

SEA: Pelagic marine waters

COAST: Dunes, sand and coastal cliffs

WETLANDS: Lentic epicontinental waters

RIVERS: Lotic epicontinental waters

CRAGS: Cliff ecosystems

GRASSLANDS: Herbaceous ecosystems

SHRUBLANDS: Matorral ecosystems

FORESTS: Woodlands ecosystems

WOOD PASTURES: Parklands – “dehesa”

FARMLANDS: Agro-ecosystems

Western Andalusia (Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba) is characterized by its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and its climatic influence that brings precipitation and humidity in winter. A significant amount of wetlands and temporary lagoons harbor aquatic fauna, mainly migratory waterfowl. Córdoba, in the center of Andalusia, is the obvious contradiction of this scheme. The Great West would be the little known Portugal, a country practically ignored by the Spaniards, except for neighboring towns.

The monotonous plain, the countryside, the “pan” of the Guadalquivir depression. A gigantic territory that extends from Cazorla, Linares, Andújar, Córdoba, Sevilla, Arcos de la Frontera, Morón de La Frontera, Antequera, Lucena, Jaén, Úbeda. Extreme temperatures, the so-called tropical nights; Slight rainfall and horizons covered with olive trees and cereals. You never forget a summer vacation in Cordoba.

Eastern Andalusia (Málaga, Jaén, Granada, Almería) is more mountainous than its Western twin. It is not uncommon for the peaks to exceed 2,000 m, and much more in the Sierra Nevada, shared between Almería and Granada. The Segura is a river, but it also designates the set of Northeast Betic mountains, a depopulated and extensive territory between Jaén, Murcia, Albacete and Alicante. Highlights here the town of Cazorla that gives its name to the “Sierra de Cazorla” the largest natural area of ​​Andalusia, the Natural Park of the Sierra de Segura, Cazorla and the Villas.