Seven captive-bred blue chaffinches Fringilla polatzeki were released in Gran Canaria, as part of a reintroduction project. The birds came from a combination of places, with some coming from a captive breeding centre on Tafira and others coming from another wild source population. The @LIFE_Programme project releases first captive-bred Blue Chaffinch in #GranCanaria, #ornithology It seems that 26 male and 15 female blue chaffinches were also released between 2010 and 2012; they seem to have similar survival and reproductive success to reinforced populations and are remaining stable in number. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00063657.2016.1239694
A really good read. It would be nice if some zoos in the Med would be involved there! Shame we cannot read the paper in BirdStudy!
I have seen the Tenerife form - I believe this has just been split as a separate species - and Tenerife is definitely the best place to see them. Just drive to a picnic site up in the pine forest at the top of Teide and look around - they are as tame as a regular chaffinch and pick up crumbs from the picnic tables.
