Tenerife goldcrest Canary Islands goldcrest "R. (r.) ellenthalerae" (Päckert "et al.", 2006), which evolved from an independent colonisation of the islands. Tenerife goldcrest The Tenerife goldcrest, "Regulus regulus teneriffae", (sometimes considered a separate species, "R. teneriffae") is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family, closely resembling the goldcrest but with a broader black band across the forehead, slightly darker underparts and a longer bill. It breeds in the Canary Islands of Tenerife and La Gomera, where it is a non-migratory resident. It prefers Canary Island Pine forests, but also occurs in laurisilva forests. The populations on La Palma and El
Gallotia 2010). Finally, the clade that colonized the younger western islands was likely to have originated from Lanzarote/Fuerteventura. This western island clade diverged into two groups, all of which colonized Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, leading to 1) a medium-bodied (e.g., "G. caesaris" from El Hierro) and 2) a large bodied "giant" species (e.g., "G. simonyi" from El Hierro) on each of these islands (note that "G. intermedia" from Tenerife belongs to the "giant" group, but present-day individuals are not that large). The giant species now exist, at best, in small relict populations, while "G. auritae" may be