Papamoscas común

Common piquiques or flycatchers (Aves: Fringillidae: Loxia) have diversified in association with the great changes that have undergone boreal forests throughout the Pleistocene. In the Balearics there is a sedentary population in Mallorca, as well as birds that sporadically enter the Mediterranean. The resident piquituertos are clearly distinct and have maintained their identity from the upper Pleistocene, indicating a reproductive isolation of their continental congeners, with which they have fixed genetic differences. Its divergent morphology can be interpreted as an adaptation to exploit pine groves with irregular food supply, in conditions of insularity. The evidence provided by morphometry, paleontology, molecular genetics, ecology and biogeography indicate that it is an endemic species: Loxia balearica (Homeyer, 1862). Its recognition as a distinct species, together with that of the Balearic shear, implies that the Balearic Islands are an area of ​​ornithological endemism of global importance, the only one in Western Europe.

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