Wild Madrid: Herons, Kingfishers and a River Reborn

The natural side of Madrid, from the herons, egrets, cormorants and kingfishers of the renaturalised River Manzanares in Madrid Río to the woods of the Casa de Campo and the Dehesa de la Villa, with a directory of the parks in our guide.

Madrid is a capital of museums and late nights, but its greatest natural story of recent years runs right through it. The River Manzanares, long held back by weirs, has been allowed to flow freely through Madrid Río, and with the reeds and islands that have grown in its bed have come herons, egrets and kingfishers.

This is a short, honest guide to Madrid’s natural side: the river, the great parks and the woods of the city’s western edge. Walk or cycle Madrid Río early in the morning, and bring binoculars.

Birds of the Manzanares

According to the city’s tourist office, more than 50 species of bird now live along the urban stretch of the Manzanares: grey herons and little egrets, moorhens and night herons, kingfishers, great cormorants and little ringed plovers, with gulls, coots, Egyptian geese and mallards nesting, flying over or paddling about.

The river links the green spaces of the west, the Casa de Campo, the Parque del Oeste and El Pardo, with the parks of the south-east, an open corridor for birds and animals that move at night.

The city runs a periodic bird-watching walk along the Parque Lineal del Manzanares into Madrid Río as part of its programme of environmental activities.

Woods and parks

The Casa de Campo, west of the river, is the city’s great wild park, with its lake and woods, and in the north-west the Dehesa de la Villa, a wood on the city’s edge, is home to more than 70 species of bird. In the centre, El Retiro, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2021, offers old trees, a lake and quiet corners for a morning walk.

Feature: a river reborn

The key to the Manzanares’ recovery was simple: letting the river flow without the interruption of its weirs. Fish move freely again, the water is visibly cleaner, and native fish breed in the river once more, among them gudgeon and barbel, with reintroduced species such as the colmilleja loach, the chub and the bermejuela.

The vegetation in the riverbed shelters birds and amphibians, and with luck you may see Spanish terrapins, water snakes, foxes and even otters.

In the middle of Madrid, the Manzanares has been allowed to flow free again, and the birds have come back.

Did you know? Madrid Río’s planting added more than 33,000 trees and 470,000 shrubs along the river, making it, in the city’s words, a third green lung beside El Retiro and the Casa de Campo.

Our advice

Our advice: start at the Puente de Toledo or the Puente de Segovia in the early morning and walk downstream, watching the islands of reeds for herons and the low branches for kingfishers. Keep to the paths, never feed the birds, and look out for the city’s guided bird walks on the river.