The Alondra Ricotí is down to just 25 examples left in the south of Spain, all in Almería province.
Chresophilus duponti as it´s known scientifically is a lovely little ground bird that hides, doesn’t travel very far and is known as the Ricotí because of it’s piping call, usually heard by shepards when they herd their goats over their nests.
Emilio González, a local ornithologist from the Serbal de Almería group, has given a talk recently in which she urged local authorities to protect the extinction of the species in the south of Spain. It’s on the “red list” of endangered species as published by SEO Birdlife.
Nationally, the Ricotí is only found on the Spanish steppes, and there are a couple of hundred of them left on the northern meseta, but if they vanish in Almería then they will be extinct in the south, killed off entirely by human action.
They are found in the Cabo de Gata area (where they have been killed off by the greenhouses) and the Sierra de Gádor (eaten by goats).
SEO Birdlife say the species will be gone by the end of the decade if something isn’t done.