 There are a great variety of birds that can be seen on the island of Tenerife, although the north tends to have more because it has more vegetation and more forests. In the south there are some specialised types that can live on near desert type areas of land and birds that live on the coast such as seagulls. Town and city birds like pigeons are found all over the island.
There are some very rare species such as the Blue Chaffinch (Fringilla teydea) that is only found in small populations in some of the mountain forests. Another rare bird of the Tenerife woodlands is Bolle’s Pigeon (Columba bollii) and its cousin the Laurel Pigeon (Columba junoniae), which are both found only in the “laurisilva” forests in the north.
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Ruigómez – a village in Tenerife’s green northwest |
Ruigómez doesn’t get a lot of publicity but it has its charms and is an excellent example of how very different parts of the north can be to what it is like in the south. Some parts of Ruigómez look and feel very much like it does in the British countryside.
There are brambles everywhere, plenty of grassy places and bracken and gorse and winding country lanes with grey stonewalls. There are fields of oats and potatoes and cabbage and maize. You can hear and see blackbirds and finches and if it wasn’t for the Spanish style houses and the occasional dragon tree or Canary Island palm you could think you had been transported to Britain. Even the butterflies you see in Ruigómez look like British ones – meadow brown and speckled woods are very common there, as are cabbage whites.
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Aguamansa – a mountain village with a trout farm |
.jpg) Aguamansa is a mountain village in the north of Tenerife that is unique and definitely worth visiting. It has a trout farm with access from the road just before the forest starts and fish from there are served in the local restaurants. The fish farm is open to the public from 10 am Mondays to Saturdays and provides information on trout breeding, which, of course needs plenty of fresh water, and is perhaps not something you would expect to find being done on Tenerife.
Aguamansa has water in its name though and often in the air because it is situated between La Orotava and Mt Teide where because of its mountainous location it is often shrouded in clouds brought in by the trade winds, as well as having water running downhill from the higher ground above.
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Pretty but poisonous flowers of Tenerife |
 Tenerife is a real paradise for people who like plants because there is an incredible range of exotic and endemic species growing on the island and very many flowers of amazing beauty, however, there are also plenty of “femme fatales” that whilst they look visually attractive harbour a poison within. These are the flowers, which are good to look at but it is best to leave them alone.
One of the most commonly planted poisonous plants is the attractive Oleander (Nerium oleander), an ornamental evergreen shrub with pink flowers, although there are other cultivar strains in white, yellow and red. The Oleander brightens up many a border in parks and gardens but it is a very poisonous plant.
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Santa Bárbara – the Tenerife pyramids village in the north |
 Santa Bárbara is a village in the north of Tenerife just a short distance from Icod de los Vinos and it is worth a visit to see the pyramids, of which there are several with the largest readily visible from the road going through.
The pyramids are on farmland and some are in much better condition than others. There is some evidence that they have been patched up over the years where the stonework has fallen away but in other places the ravages of time are easy to see. On one of the roads there is even a house built right next to one pyramid.
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Results 6 - 10 of 41 |
Tenerife Island