Blue Chaffinch, on lichen
Fringilla teydea
Blue Chaffinch · Tenerife · 13 April 2026
A Blue Chaffinch on a lichen-hung branch in the pine forest of Tenerife, greyer and plainer than the slate-blue male - a female or a young bird. Found nowhere on earth but the Canary Island pine forests of this one island, and dependent on that one tree for its seed and its nesting sites.
That makes the whole species hostage to the forest. The pine survives fire; the chaffinch survives because the pine does. The blue in this species belongs to adult males.
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