Cernícalo primilla

As spring is coming and the lesser kestrels, the true stars of the Life-ZEPAURBAN project, are already landing in our towns and villages, let us give you some hints to help you to identify them.

This species is the smallest diurnal bird of prey breeding in the Iberian Peninsula. The male and the female have very different plumage as can been seen in the graph, while juveniles are very similar to the females.

The Life-ZEPAURBAN project hopes to see you at the 2021 virtual International Birdwatching Fair (Feria Internacional de Turismo Ornitológico, 2021); we will be delighted to welcome you to the European project stand of the Tourist Department and the stand of the Regional Ministry for Ecological Transition and Sustainability. There we will be able to give you all the updated information on the project and will present the new material which has been published.

The tourist offices of Cáceres, Jerez de los Caballeros, Plasencia, Trujillo, and Zafra will soon have new promotional material as part of the Life-ZEPAURBAN project, the result of the work carried out by our Laruinagráfica partners and the Tourist Department for the E5 action of the project. This material takes the form of street maps so the visitor can go on a self-guided tour and get to know at the same time the main monumental and ornithological heritage of each of these five towns.

Since the first SPA was declared within an urban center in Extremadura in 2004, this pioneering initiative has been widely accepted by different groups such as local and regional governments and conservation NGOs. However, while the network of urban SPAs in Extremadura grew to 19 declared spaces, no other region in the world had declared a building or group of buildings as a protected space because of its biodiversity value.

In the last year of the LIFE-ZEPAURBAN project, a complete census of all the urban SPAs that are part of its scope of action is planned. Nevertheless, following the criteria established by the scientific committee for the project (Action F2), in 2020 an attempt was made to count the largest possible number of SPAs in Extremadura in order to have information on population trends.

The lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) is, among many other things, the bird of a thousand names; throughout the centuries it has become a symbol of coexistence between humans and birds of prey to the point of becoming a species that indicates sustainable development as its greater or lesser presence in our towns and cities helps us to know the health of our fields as well as the quality of said fields' nesting habitats -- something which, in turn, provides clues about our own habitat.  

The lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) is a small falcon and as such is integrated into the Falconidae family.

El increíble "diente de halcón" del cernícalo primilla es una eficaz herramienta para matar instantáneamente a sus presas pinzando las vértebras del cuello en los vertebrados y la base posterior de la cabeza en los insectos y otros invertebrados.

The Special Protection Area for birds known as "Lesser Kestrel Colonies of Almendralejo" is located within the urban core of said municipality and constitutes a space of unique characteristics since it houses one of the largest colonies of lesser kestrel in Extremadura located in a single building: approximately 98% of the pairs in the municipality nest on the roof and tower of the Nuestra Señora de la Purificación Church.