[Animals] How animals adapt to Barcelona

[#Wittels-]

Everyone knows that the human being and the environment that he himself creates end up influencing and causing the adaptation to it of certain living beings that originally live in the wild.

In mammals, the most common case is that of the wild boars of the Collserola mountain range that have lost their fear and now enter the streets of the upper area of the city in search of food in rubbish bins.

 

As for the birds, there are multiple cases observed in which they lose their fear of the proximity of humans. Gulls, pigeons and Argentine parrots are the most common and most easily observable case; Barcelona has many.

Rarer to see are the cases of small birds like a nest of serins (they could be described as "green sparrows") that I could see in a tree on Avenida República Argentina on the corner of Ballester.

Nest of serins in a tree on Avenida República Argentina. daniel garcia
In this case, these small birds have adapted to the urban environment and nest in the lower parts of the trees as a defense measure so that other birds (larger ones, such as magpies) that do not have such a degree of adaptation do not prey on their eggs.

Then there are the birds that have adapted so much that they no longer only approach human beings, but also come to ask for food. Such is the case with a small redstart that came to my house every day. Now he is gone and in his place a blackbird has come and does the same thing.

 

Finally, there are the cases of birds that are beginning to adapt, and the example that I show constitutes the frightening one of the photographs of this report in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia.

What I have seen and portrayed has happened in the electrical substation of the Renfe railway line that is next to the Plaza de las Glòries, in the triangle formed by the streets of Bolivia, Álava and Avenida Meridiana.

This place is a dry place and quite far from the coastal area, so one does not expect to find an aquatic bird that lacks adaptation such as seagulls.

 

The white heron (Ardea Alba) lives in swamps, lagoons, coasts and marshes. Typically forages in open places such as lake shores, large swamps, shallow coastal ponds, and estuaries; also along rivers in wooded areas.

It feeds in shallow waters, mainly on fish, frogs, small mammals and occasionally small birds and reptiles, food that is not found in dry and littered areas.

I wonder: What would have had to happen for an aquatic bird like this to venture so far from its natural habitat? This is the sequence of photos:

 

Link: https://www.lavanguardia.com/participacion/las-fotos-de-los-lectores/20220603/8311405/como-adaptan-animales-barcelona.html#foto-3