Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch

Successful mission this morning. I didn't have much time around family commitments (had to get back for a Foam Party) so made for Llanos de la Pez which is the main Ebird hotspot for this island endemic. The wildfire was still raging and the main road to the site was closed so I had to detour to the north and drop back down which took a bit longer but I was lucky there was still one route open to the summit. 

Site location and checklist HERE. Locations of all recent sightings on Gran Canaria HERE.  The birds I saw were by the road near the picnic area car park. By the looks of Ebird this is where most sightings are. My 3163rd species on my world bird list and 719th for the Western Palearctic . My Life targets are 5000 (half the world's bird species and all families) before the grave in the World and 800 by 80 in the WP.   

Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch is arguably Europe's rarest breeding bird with only 130+ breeding pairs in the world.  Formerly conspecific with Tenerife Blue Chaffinch, Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch was recently split due to plumage, morphometric and vocal distinctions.   

Male Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch (above). Differs from Tenerife Blue Chaffinch by the more extensive black at the base of the bill,  white covert bar and more distinctively by the paler blue upperparts and whiter underparts. 

Female Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch (above) 

African Blue Tit 

'Gran Canaria Great Spotted Woodpecker', Dendrocopos major thanneri - an endemic subspecies on Gran Canaria. Great Spot is also present on Tenerife of the subspecies canariensis. The Great Spots on the Canary islands are darker on the underparts than the nominate, with canariensis being darker than thanneri. 

Raven

Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch habitat- Montane Canary Pine forest

A couple of inverts to identify (above and below) . The butterfly below could be the endemic Gran Canaria Grayling