20.11.2025 - Indoor Meeting : Matt Merritt's Birdwatching in Southern Portugal

Speaker: Matt Merritt
Report: Steph Plaster

​Although it was a very cold, wet sleety evening, around 50 members attended to hear Matt Merritt, editor of ‘Bird Watching’ magazine, give us a splendid talk and presentation about birding in Southern Portugal. Only a few of the group appear to have been bird watching in this part of Europe, but I would imagine after Matt’s inspirational talk about this ‘lesser known’ birding region, many members will consider a trip to this quieter part of Iberia.

The talk focused on three main zones, the Tagus Estuary area south of the capital Lisbon, the central plains bordering Spain known as the Alentejo and finally the Algarve region in the far south, perhaps best known for tourism rather than bird watching. 
Matt started the first half of his talk by looking at the estuary of the Tagus River and telling us why this part of Portugal is so good for birding. This area is on the west coast of Europe and therefore a natural migration route on the East Atlantic Flyway (WVBS September talk). It has milder winters and a less intense climate than central Iberia, where it’s much hotter and dryer. There are several major river deltas and estuaries that flow into the Atlantic Ocean. The image above shows the Tagus estuary which is around 34,000 ha, the largest in Western Europe, and contains rich and varied habitats for birds. There’s a national nature reserve, extensive mudflats, paddy fields and plenty of scrub and unimproved areas - which Portugal has lots of according to Matt. Portugal does not have such a manicured or over-developed countryside, so consequently there is an abundance of scrubby habitat, particularly suited to warblers and shrikes which are found in good numbers. Matt showed us many stunning images including vast flocks of Black-tailed godwits, up to 60,000 or so, and it’s an excellent place for other waders including Kentish plover, Greenshank, Greater flamingo, Glossy ibis (up to 200 at a time), Black-winged stilt, one of the commonest birds here, plus Grey plover, Wood, Common, and Curlew sandpipers. Avocet also breed here, Little stint, Ruff, Dunlin, and Sanderling can be seen.
Along with the waders there are several raptors, in particular the Peregrine falcon which is regularly spotted ‘putting up’ the wader flocks. Ospreys, especially juveniles, are found here as they don’t seem to move south to Africa until they are adults. There are also Black kites, more common than the Red kite, and the dainty almost ‘kestrel-like’ Black-winged kite is easy to see as it’ll perch on telegraph poles and tends to hover, a bit like a kestrel.
A more curious species found here is the Purple gallinule or Western swamphen which is widespread and can even be seen around the weedy, wet zones near Faro airport. Black redstarts are a common bird, favouring ruined buildings and churches, and the Spotless starling is frequently seen in good numbers, especially on the impressive Vasco da Gama bridge that crosses the Tagus estuary. Other birds include Red-crested pochard, (an FLD or funny looking duck) Short-toed treecreeper, Spoonbill, Water pipit, Quail, which sing all year, and Little owl due to a liking of the derelict buildings in this area. 
An unusual bird from Africa, the Common waxbill, is now becoming more numerous and can be found in gardens, plus the Yellow-crowned bishop, another African species, prefers the paddy fields. After the refreshment break, Matt took us to the vast Alentejo, an area that has a wide range of habitats including grassy undulating plains, small agricultural fields, grazing sheep and the dehesas. These are open plains containing scattered Cork oak trees, which are a fantastic and ecologically-sound system of non-intensive farming. Cork oak trees are truly sustainable as the cork bark is only peeled from trees every nine or so years and the trees are not felled as with timber production. Matt advocates buying wine bottles with corks to ensure this sustainable cork oak forestry system continues as it supports a wide variety of birdlife here and is of significant importance. So, we should all try to buy more eco-friendly cork-based products to keep this traditional system going. A dehesa above, with scattered Cork oaks, grassy wildflower meadows and grazing animals. The Iberico pig feeds on the acorns here and it’s a relatively sparsely populated area, so less development and disruption. In this wonderful open habitat Matt showed images of birds typically found there; Corn Bunting, Crested lark, Calandra lark, Wood lark, Thekla lark, Dartford warbler, Sardinian warbler, some
of which were trickier for us to identify! Larger species found here include the magnificent Great bustard where up to 30 birds can be seen at a time, and the Little bustard, which Matt said is struggling and declining in Portugal. Stone curlews hunker down in the grasslands, Iberian grey shrikes are common, and the more striking Woodchat shrike can also be found in this region. Iberian Green Woodpeckers and Wrynecks search the numerous anthills of the plains for food, whilst the Great- spotted cuckoo will parasitise the nests of Magpies.
Mertola, a small town with less than 8,000 inhabitants overlooking the gorge of Guadiana, is often used as a base for birders and has a wide variety of birdlife found within its Roman ruins and Moorish architecture. Blue rock thrush, Bluethroat, Golden orioles and huge colonies of large Crag martins, Red-rumped swallows, and also White-rumped swifts can be found here.
Black-eared wheatears, Hoopoes and Crested tits are found here in good numbers, there are many old stone quarries in this region and they are great places for birds. Even the massive European Eagle owl will make these old workings their home. Matt advised that with common sense it’s possible to still go into working quarries if permitted, where a wide range of species live. Other birds of prey include Lesser kestrel which can be found in large colonies, unlike here in the UK where we normally only see them in pairs at the most.
Larger raptors of the region include Golden eagle which can be seen hunting across the plains, the Iberian Imperial eagle and Bonelli’s eagle, expertly identified by one of the group, plus the White stork is now resident all year round as they seem to prefer to stay put as opposed to migrating to Africa. The final area that Matt looked at was the more familiar Algarve - a favourite amongst Brits for their holidays - but this region also has lots of geographical features that attract birds as well as tourists. The Algarve is the most southerly part of Portugal and borders Spain and along this coastline are several zones including vast saltpans, where salt is still produced in the traditional manner (check out Channel 5’s series ‘Portugal with Michael Portillo’, he’s not everyone’s cup of tea but you see the fantastic landscape of the Algarve and not just the touristy places).
There are also islands and wide shallow lagoons, traditional fishing villages, dense scrubby areas and mudflats which are all great for waders and seabirds. Matt showed several gull photos, again gulls are not to everyone’s taste, but there are many species that won’t pinch your chips, like here in parts of the UK. For example, you can spot Yellow-legged gull, a European version of our Herring gull, Mediterranean gull, Audouin’s gull and the small, but long-necked Slender-billed gull which has a pinkish tinge to its breast feathers. Sandwich terns frequent this area and some of the ringing recoveries show that the birds come from northern Europe, including The Netherlands and Germany - so they like to holiday in the Algarve too by the looks of it! This is also a good area to spot the Mediterranean Short-toed lark, Little bitterns can be regularly seen on the numerous golf courses dotted along the coastline, plus Penduline tits can even be seen in more developed parts including around hotels and the smart Ferruginous duck is also doing well in Portugal. Overall, it was a fantastic talk by Matt about this great birding area which, as he said, seems to have been overshadowed by its larger neighbour Spain and has the lion’s share of specialty birding tours. So hopefully his informative talk will inspire some more members to experience this interesting country and make their own birding trip there. It’s relatively easy to get there (flights are available from Norwich airport at certain times of the year) and is in the same time zone as the UK. It’s an easy place to bird with not much traffic, especially in the open plains of the Alentejo and he says the people there are welcoming and friendly - so what’s not to like about this stunning country.
​Matt showed some spectacular photos of the landscape and birds found in this part of Portugal and if you want to see more images of them, I recommend you take a look at this book (Europe's Birds) as it’s
fabulously illustrated with loads of photographs so you can see all the birds that Matt was describing in more detail. Plus check out ‘Michael Portillo’s Portugal’ on Channel 5 catch-up too as they say ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ and this brief report cannot do justice to Matt’s brilliant talk or the birds and landscape of this stunning country. Matt also brought along copies of the current and past editions of Bird Watching magazine which was much appreciated by everyone.
This book (Europe's Birds) describes and illustrates over 900 species of birds seen in Europe many of which can be seen in Portugal. There are also several other bird books by Gonçalo Elias if you want more specific species information or best regions to go birding in Portugal. I think after Matt’s talk many of us will be beating a path to Portugal to experience an interesting and calmer, slow-paced birding trip in the sun.