18 May 2020

Arabian Red-capped Lark - Abha

The Talea’a Valley near Abha is in the Asir mountains in southwest Saudi Arabia and is a large upland wadi with stony ground and acacia trees growing in the bottom. It is the best site for locating Arabian Red-capped Lark Calandrella eremica in the Kingdom. This is a difficult species to find in the Kingdom and always appear to favour stony ground so Phil Roberts and I went looking for other locations where the species may occur with similar habitat. We eventually located some breeding birds, adults feeding juveniles, many kilometres south of the know range for them south of Abha. We took a few photos and confirmed the new location was indeed unknown from Mike Jennings.
Arabian Red-capped Lark

Arabian Red-capped Lark

Arabian Red-capped Lark

Arabian Red-capped Lark

Arabian Red-capped Lark