Canary Islands The connection to dogs is retained in their depiction on the islands' coat-of-arms. It is considered that the aborigines of Gran Canaria called themselves "Canarios". It is possible that after being conquered, this name was used in plural in Spanish, i.e., as to refer to all of the islands as the Canarii-as. What is certain is that the name of the islands does not derive from the canary bird; rather, the birds are named after the islands. Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the archipelago. Gran Canaria, with 865,070 inhabitants, is both the Canary Islands' second most
Canary Islands oystercatcher Canary Islands oystercatcher The Canary Islands oystercatcher, Canarian oystercatcher, or Canarian black oystercatcher ("Haematopus meadewaldoi"), was a shorebird endemic to Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and their offshore islets (Islote de Lobos and the Chinijo Archipelago) in the Canary Islands, Spain. It is now considered to be extinct. Hockey (1982) showed that the Canary Islands oystercatcher was a full species distinct from the African oystercatcher "Haematopus moquini", of which it was formerly considered a subspecies; these two were occasionally lumped as subspecies of the Eurasian oystercatcher. Though this bird was long known to naturalists, it was considered a mere local population of the