A Birding Tourist's Guide to Majorca
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Mallorca has long been a favourite with sun-seeking Brits - not just as a summer holiday destination but also as a short haul retreat for a spring or autumn break.
This popular Balearic island appeals to all sorts of people, especially birdwatchers. There are all manner of habitats, from mountain forests to wild olive thickets and reed-beds to cliffs, sand dunes and garrigue (lows scrub), and it's relatively easy to get from one side of the island to another.
What's more, it boasts not only migrant birds, that stop to rest and refuel while passing through in spring and autumn, but also endemics (birds found nowhere else).
A Birding Tourist's Guide to Majorca is a delightful, lightweight book that describes a wealth of sites in words, photos and maps.
Mallorca has 110 breeding species, a further 62 birds that over-winter and 51 that are seen regularly during migration periods. Add a sprinkling of unpredictable rarities, and the Mallorcan bird list rises to an impressive 340 species.
Among the birds found only in the Balearics are Balearic shearwater (a type of seabird) and the secretive, scrub-loving Balearic warbler.
Anyone birdwatcher going to Mallorca should be sure to slip this most useful guide in their rucksack.
• A Birding Tourist's Guide to Majorca by Rebassa, Manchado, Martinez, Torrens and Oriola, published in 2009, is available through Subutteo Books at £19.99 in paperback. www.wildlifebooks.com
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