Rare birds once spotted only in Africa, or in dodgy markets where unscrupulous traders sold them in cages, are now common throughout the Spanish regions of Granada, Murcia, Alicante and Almeria.

The rosy-breasted trumpeter finch, a relative of the canary known in Spanish as the camachuelo trompetero, is usually found in north Africa in a zone that stretches from the western Sahara to the Middle East. Its preferred habitat is desert, semi-desert and barren scrublands where vegetation is sparse. But hundreds of breeding pairs have settled happily in arid, stony terrain with just these characteristics around Cabo de Gata in Almeria.

The trumpeter finch, named for its buzzing nasal trill, is not the only African settler in Spain.

"Species characteristic of more southerly regions have started to appear in the arid and semi-arid zones of Spain, " says Eulalia Moreno, a scientist at the Spanish state scientific research council, CSIC.

The proliferation of the trumpeter finch is a consequence of an increase in temperature and decline in rainfall in southeast Spain, and a "good indicator" of the increased desertification of the Mediterranean area. "What really makes this species interesting is that it testifies to the effects of global change, " Moreno said.

Birdspotters recently reported sightings of several cream-coloured coursers, which are native to the Sahara desert, in a dry field in southern Spain. Other species drawn from African habitats to settle in southern Spain include the African goshawk eagle, more usually seen in Tanzania, and the high-flying Ruppell's griffon vulture, which ranges the savannah from Senegal to Kenya.