Ponta do Sol, Madeira Ponta do Sol, Madeira Ponta do Sol (, ) is a municipality in the southwestern coast of the island of Madeira, in the archipelago of Madeira. The population in 2011 was 8,862, in an area of 46.19 km². The settlement of Ponta do Sol began shortly after the discovery of the island of Madeira, around 1420. Ponta do Sol is located between Ribeira-Brava and Calheta, on the southwest coast of Madeira, linked to Funchal (the capital) and surrounding communities by the main regional road. The municipality is crossed by a few pedestrian hiking trails, that usually follow the "levadas" ()
Madeira firecrest of the Canaries, Azores, and Madeira have a volcanic origin and they have never been part of a continent. The formation of Madeira started in the Miocene and the island was substantially complete 700,000 years ago. In the distant past the major islands of these archipelagos were all colonised by "Regulus" species, which evolved on their respective islands isolated from mainland populations. The firecrest descendant evolved in Madeira and goldcrest subspecies evolved on the other islands. Cytochrome "b" gene divergence between common firecrests from Europe and Madeira firecrests suggests an evolutionary separation roughly 4 million years ago, considerably earlier than