Yemen Serin Serinus menachensis is a scarce, but locally common resident
breeder in the southwest of Saudi Arabia. It is restricted to highlands of the
Asir from the Abha area north to As Shafa escarpment. This was one of my last
two southwest Arabian endemics to see along with Arabian Scops Owl and despite
extensive searching I had not managed to see one on my previous trips to the
area. This trip turned out very differently with birds seen in good numbers at
two different sites. The first birds seen were a group of more than thirty
birds seen drinking water from a leaking water tank in the early morning of 11
July 2014. These birds then flew down into some nearby stony fields and were
joined by more with at least 51 birds present. These birds were reasonably tame
and allowed close approach even on foot, allowing some good photographs to be
taken. Amazingly we saw another flock of 50 birds in another area of Al Mehfar
Park and the next day 57 in a completely different area. We have made a
conservative estimate that we saw 100 birds at this location. The location of
Al Mehfar Park has plenty of the species favourite habitat of stony hillsides,
rocky outcrops, cultivated fields and flat waste ground with scrub. Habitat and
its flocking tendency are two ways of separating Yemen Serin form the similar Arabian
Serin.
