Catálogo de las aves de la Región de Murcia (España)

Abstract

The avifauna component is one of most important and of greatest conservation concern as regards the biodiversity of the province of Murcia. The present catalogue consists of a total of 339 species belonging to 69 families and 24 orders, of which 78 are principally considered winter visitors, 51 passage migrants, 41 summer visitors, 85 resident, 82 occasional visitors and 2 are naturalised exotic. For each species, we briefly describe its status, abundance and distribution in the study area. We also provide an additional list of 31 non-naturalised exotic species. Compared with the previous catalogue of birds of the province of Murcia, which was compiled 30 years ago, the present list includes 71 new species, excluding exotic species. We discuss the plausible causes of this increase in the context of global change, together with the most significant changes in the avifauna of the region. We also comment on the numerous changes regarding taxonomic aspects and the systematic ordering of species.

Keywords

• Avifauna
• Bird distribution
• Exotic species
• Population status