Valencia (EFE).- The massive presence of birds in l’Albufera de Valencia, especially the striking flamingos, is an evident sign of the good state of the waters of this lake, which this winter received significant contributions from the Xúquer, but also of the deterioration of other wetlands such as Doñana, and its presence could have some negative consequences, especially in rice fields.
In statements to EFE, various experts explain how the presence of more than 110,000 pairs of birds in l’Albufera has been possible and stress that flamingo is not exactly the best indicator to determine the health of the wetland.
“It is a highly visible animal and in recent years an increase in its presence has been detected in l’Albufera. It is true that they are very mobile, that they can travel nearly 200 kilometers in a day to look for food and that when they have a problem in a lagoon, they do not take long to look for better conditions”, explains the professor of Geography at the Polytechnic University of Valencia ( UPV) María José Vinyals.
Record in the avifauna census
“When a wetland suffers a severe drought, as is the case in Doñana, the birds look for alternatives and establish themselves in another place temporarily or permanently. In Doñana there is an extreme situation due to the overexploitation of resources and the drought. And in l’Albufera the opposite happens; It has had a good winter, with the most extensive ‘perellonà’ (flood) in recent years”, explains Carles Sanchis, a researcher at the UPV’s Valencian Center for Irrigation Studies.
“It is true that there are more birds, not just flamingos, and since last autumn the birdlife census has been a record, with some 114,000 pairs of birds,” he details.
But perhaps the presence of these pink birds is not the best indicator of the lake’s quality: there are other rarer and more delicate birds that are more worrying specialists.
The flamingo, common in the eastern Mediterranean
The delegate in the Valencian Community of the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO-Birdlife), Mario Giménez, is more skeptical when it comes to establishing a direct relationship between the poor state of Doñana and the increase in flamingos in l’Albufera.
“Surely part of the population that has arrived does so because of the poor conditions of the Andalusian marshes, but I don’t think the cause is direct,” he points out. The colony of l’Albufera has to do with the good state of the water and the rice paddy, there is more food”.
“There have been flamingos in l’Albufera for years. There is a large population throughout the eastern Mediterranean, from the Camargue in France to North Africa; They are connected populations, and the reproducers usually go from one place to another if they do not find good conditions”, adds Giménez.
In his opinion, one should look towards a trend rather than a circumstantial fact: “Flamenco is opportunistic, since it lives in spaces that tend to change, they can grow up one year in one place and change the next; This change in the life of the flamingo is quite normal, a very long-lived bird, by the way, which usually produces one offspring per year, unlike other species that live fewer years and try to reproduce more”.
“L’Albufera is better off, it’s true, because it has an allocation of flows in the basin plan, but this contribution is conditional on the modernization of irrigation, it is not shielded. What must be guaranteed -he remarks- is that it arrives year after year”.
A possible problem
Giménez also warns of the problem for farmers that the consolidation of the presence of flamingos in l’Albufera can entail, basically due to the losses that they can cause to crops.
“Talking about the record presence of birds is not significant either if we include species such as seagulls or flamingos”, which, as he explains, have “very different needs. Furthermore, perhaps their presence does not indicate the good situation of l’Albufera, but the terrible situation of other spaces”.
For this reason, the SEO delegate believes that “flamenco is a bad link to talk about the good state of l’Albufera, because we don’t necessarily need more. We should pay attention to the presence of species such as the coot, the red duck, the heron or other threatened species, whose presence depends on the quality of the water and the underwater vegetation”.
In his opinion, l’Albufera, due to its extension, “should have thousands of pairs of these species, but in some cases there are only dozens. If quality water continues to enter the lake this will recover, but I insist that there is no guarantee that this good year will be repeated”. By Jordi Ferrer