Goldcrest

Regulus regulus

Order: Passeriformes
Family: Regulidae
Presence in the Strait: Occasional
Protection in Spain: Special protection (List)
In Spanish: Reyezuelo sencillo

Photograph: Cliff Watkinson, CC BY-SA, vía iNaturalist

Length: 9 cm
Weight: 5 g

Presence in the Strait

Occasional. Seven records: At Gibraltar on 17.05.67 (2 birds), 19.04.73, 15.12.73, 10.02.91 and 20.11.01; at Guadacorte estate on 28.11.92, and at Sotogrande on 15.12.92.

Identification

Like a Firecrest but without supercilium, eye-stripe and grey border to cheeks. Males have orangey crown stripe, yellow in females. The nearest breeding population is in Reyezuelo Sencillo Central Iberian Peninsula.

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

63 %

Peak in November. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 5 November 1975
Latest record: 2 March 2013

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Special protection (List)
Spanish Catalogue: Special protection (List)
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: DD · Data deficient · breeding
Global Red List (IUCN): LC · Least concern

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Same genus in the Strait

Common Firecrest9–9 cm · Resident · overlapping size

Species of the same genus that also occur here, ordered by how close they are in size. Being relatives does not mean they are confused in the field, but that is where the doubts start: compare size and season.

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Regulidae
GBIF taxon key: 2484596

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: Cliff Watkinson, CC BY-SA, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Goldcrest

Presence in the Strait

Identification

Gallery