A Rocha Portugal Observatory Report 2009-2010

A Rocha Portugal Observatory Report 2009-2010 7
These records were: on 18 July 2006, one individual along the Canal du Vigueirat; on 19 July 2006, one
individual in a field directly west of Les Tourades and on 20 July 2006, one individual on wire along the
Route de Coste Basse close to the Étangs de la Gravière.
Due to the fact that Magpies and Carrion Crows are vagrants at Quinta da Rocha with very few records for
each species in the period 1986 – 2010, and that Ravens also are uncommon (with most records made in
September 2010), there appears to be an absence of the favored hosts for the Great Spotted Cuckoo within
the study area. The Jackdaw is a common visitor on the Quinta da Rocha, but breeds on the rocky cliffs
along the coast south of the city of Lagos (7 Km from Quinta da Rocha). The Azure-winged Magpie has
become very common in the last 15 years, often occurring in big groups and known to be breeding on the
Quinta de Rocha (Scheres, 1999 and 2001), however, this corvid is not recognized to be a real host
(Valencia, 2005). The increasing abundance of the Azure-winged Magpie has not resulted into more records
of the Great Spotted Cuckoo on the Quinta da Rocha. The only remaining recognized candidate as a host to
this cuckoo species is the Hoopoe, a common species within the study area. To date, however, there is no
confirmation of the use of a Hoopoe’s nest by a parasitizing Great Spotted Cuckoo on the Quinta da Rocha.
The majority of the Great Spotted Cuckoos seen within the study area are mostly adults arriving in February
and in the first half of March and juveniles dispersing from their breeding grounds in the summer months,
especially in July. Moore, 1997, mentions that the best time to see juveniles is in June, but that is within
the breeding areas when these juveniles start to fly.
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Figure 1 Number of records of Great Spotted Cuckoo in each month within the period 1986-2010