Dhahran Al Janob

Whilst in the southwest in mid-November we travelled across to Najran birding the wadies and hills in areas where very few birders have ventured in recent years or even before that. The idea was to try to see what the range of some of the commoner birds were. We located a few birds that have not been recorded in the area previously such as Abyssinian White-eye and Arabian Babbler and others that have not been recorded since 1984 such as Arabian Warbler, Arabian Scops Owl & Arabian Wheatear. Other species seen and photographed included Palestine Sunbird, Arabian Green Bee-eater, Graceful Prinia & Arabian Sunbird.

Palestine Sunbird

Graceful Prinia

Arabian Wheatear

Arabian Wheatear

Arabian Warbler

Arabian Sunbird

Arabian Green Bee-eater

Abyssinian White-eye

Woodland birding - Billasimer

The tall woodland around Billasimer looked good for birdwatching and as neither Phil or I had birded the area we spent both our available mornings at the location. There are plenty of good looking sites and a few nice tracks that may hold nightjars (Plain and Montane), for which we will look next time in the area. We found a couple of very deep valleys with Philby’s Partidge calling regularly but the birds stayed hidden in the woods and did not fly as normal, so we failed to even see them. Arabian Babblers were common along the edge of the valley and Red-breasted Wheatear were seen on the way into the location. Other birds seen and photographed were Little Rock Thrush, Yemen Thrush and Abyssinian White-eye. Brown Woodland Warbler was common and plenty of Dusky Turtle Doves were seen with a couple of Arabian Magpie as calling and flying up and down the valley.

Abyssinian White-eye

Arabian Babbler

Arabian Babbler

Little Rock Thrush

Yemen Thrush

Southwest species – Talea Valley

Whilst birding the Talea Valley in summertime it is very hot quite hard work. A few birds breed in the dry and rocky wadi bottom but seeing anything is not that easy. The bright light and high temperatures here make photography difficult and as I almost always arrive at midday, as I go to the Raydah Escarpment at first light, it is even more trying. Good birds can be seen if you persist and below are a few southwestern specialities I saw on my last visit. Arabian Babbler can be seen occasionally as they keep in small flocks and call to each other to keep in contact. Abyssinian White-eyes can occasionally be located in the tall acacia trees in the wadi bottom. Scarcer birds are Dusky Turtle Dove and African Silverbills that come down to drink if there is any free standing water. Cinnamon-breasted Bunting is only present in summer and is not there in winter of spring so presumably moves to lower altitude as it is resident in Saudi Arabia.

Abyssinian White-eye

African Silverbill

Arabian Babbler

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting 

Dusky Turtle Dove

Summer time birding - Tanoumah

Last summer I visited Tanoumah, and have just sorted out my photos from the trip. Below are a few species I managed to see and photograph including Abyssinian White-eye, Brown-necked Raven, Common Kestrel, Crested Lark, Little Rock Thrush, Tristrams Starling and Violet-backed Starling. I also saw a few Arabian endemics including Arabian Serin, Arabian Wheatear, Yemen Serin and Yemen Warbler.

Abyssinian White-eye

Arabian Serin

Arabian Wheatear

Brown-necked Raven

Brown-necked Raven

Common Kestrel

Crested Lark

Little Rock Thrush

Tristram's Starling

Violet-backed Starling

Yemen Serin 

Yemen Warbler

Early morning down the Raydah Escarpment – Abha

Whilst in the Asir Mountains recently I went down the Raydah Escarpment early in the morning. This is the best place and best time to try to locate Arabian Partridge and as normal I was not disappointed with a number of birds calling and a couple seen on the roadside. A stop at the disused farm was relatively good with good views of Abyssinian White-eye and plenty of other resident species. Further down I had a party of four Arabian Waxbills an Arabian endemic species that is far from easy to see and several Laughing Doves.

Arabian Partridge

Arabian Waxbill

Abyssinian White-eye

Laughing Dove

Abyssinian White-eye – Tanoumah

Whilst birding in the southwest I came across a number of Abyssinian White-eyes, firstly at the top of the Raydah Escarpment in Abha and then at Tanoumah. We trapped and ringed five birds and took biometrics as well as blood samples and photographs. Shown below are some of the photos. Z. a. abyssinicus occurs from northeast Sudan, through Eritrea and north & central Ethiopia. Z. a. arabs occurs in southwest Saudi Arabia, Yemen and southern Oman. Z. a. socotranus occurs in north Somalia and Socotra Island. Z. a. omoensis occurs in western Ethiopia, Z. a. jubaensis in southern Ethiopia, northern Kenya and southern Somalia and Z. a. flavilateralis in eastern, central and southern Kenya south to northeast and eastern Tanzania. Nominate race Zosterops abyssinicus abyssinicus has a yellow supraloral stripe extending to yellow area above bill, narrow blackish-brown line from lores to below narrow white eyering. The cheek flecked yellow; forehead to upperparts pale greyish-green, yellower on uppertail-coverts. The chin to throat and centre of upper breast pale yellow, lower breast and sides pale grey, belly and thighs greyish-white, undertail-coverts pale yellow. The iris is light red-brown to brown; bill horn-brown above, pinkish-brown below; legs brown or flesh-coloured. Sexes alike. The race occurring in Saudi Arabia Z. a. arabs is like nominate, but with fairly dark greyish-green upperparts.

Desert Lark - Taif Euphorbia Forest

After our successful trip to the Bani Saad area looking for Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak we went to the Taif Euphorbia Forest, an area where we saw Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak in the previous January. We arrived in mid-afternoon and there was very little activity at the site at all. The place is amazing for the size and number of Euphorbias many of which are over eight metres tall. This is the best place to see the large plants in their natural habitat and as Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak like to associate with this plant is a good place to look for them. The Euphorbias grow on steep rocky hillsides and birding the area properly means climbing up and down the rocky hillsides. We saw very few birds on our visit with Desert Lark, Abyssinian White-eye and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting being the best, but it was still worth a visit to see the amazing plants.

Euphorbia

Euphorbia

Desert Lark

Abyssinian White-eye

Looking for Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak – Haraar

Last Friday Phil Roberts and I went to the Taif area of Saudi Arabia in the hope of locating Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak, the last remaining unseen Arabian regional endemic for us both in Saudi Arabia. Lou Regenmorter had seen birds in this area last year and Brian James had seen them in the same area a few years earlier. This thus sounded like a prime site for seeing the species so we arrived at the location about 120 kilometres out of Taif on the way to Bahah just before first light. Unfortunately the weather was against us and there was low cloud, and strong wind making birding decidedly difficult. We spent the whole day at the loactio walking up and down the mountains and around the tracks and roads looking intently for the target species as well as anything else we may see. After the entire day in the field we had only seen 16 species of bird but did locate a few good ones but not the Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak. The best birds we saw were a group of eight Philby’s Partridges, one of the twelve regional endemics with plenty of Arabian Wheatears and Yemen Linnets two more regional endemics.. Other birds seen included plenty of Palestine Snbirds, several Brown Woodland Warblers, Common Kestrel, Abyssinian White-eyes and Tristram’s Starlings. Other species seen included House Sparrows, Song Thrushes, Laughing Doves and White-spectacled Bulbuls, Scrub Warblers.

Palestine Sunbird

Abyssinian White-eye

Common Kestrel

Mangrove White-eye sp Either Mangroves – Bird records by Lou Regenmorter

An unidentified ‘mangrove white-eye’ species occurs along the Red Sea Coast of southwest Saudi Arabia (Newton 2006) but very few records of the birds have been published. The birds were found during a survey of southern Red Sea mangrove stands in 1994 when white-eyes were discovered between the villages of Shuqaiq and Amq, approximately midway between Jizan and al Qunfudah. This represented a range of approaching 100 kilometres, though it was thought it may have extend further to the north given the abundant mangrove stands, although subsequent surveys of these areas failed to locate any birds. The birds choice of habitat as well as smaller size, confirmed by biometrics, and brighter plumaged compared to the nearby montane populations of Abyssinian white-eye Zosterops abyssinicus arabs led to the suggestion that DNA evidence may be necessary to unravel the bird's identity and until this is done the birds should remain unidentified and were best treated as 'mangrove white-eye sp' (Newton 2006). A comment in Porter & Aspinall (2010) under Abyssinian White-eye states a population of white-eyes present in the mangroves on the southern Red sea coast of Saudi Arabia and Yemen remains unidentified. In Jennings (2010), however, there was no mention of the birds in the mangroves of the Red Sea coast possibly as they have not been positively identified and despite extensive searching no further data has been located on these birds and no other documented records have been found. In Oman, Oriental White-eyes were found in 1999 on the small offshore mangrove island of Mahawt where they used similar habitat and occurred only in the canopy of mature mangroves similar to the behavior of the ‘mangrove white-eyes’ in Saudi Arabia. They do not, however, appear to be this species as they have obvious differences in plumage and bill colour. The Saudi Arabian birds resemble Abyssinian White-eye but one obvious difference is that the amount of white around the eye is much larger on the ‘mangrove white-eye’ than on Abyssinian White-eye form the Asir highlands taken at the same time of year - see photo below. On 2 July 2013 whilst birding Either Mangroves (17.16375N, 42.40585E), I saw two ‘mangrove white-eyes’ feeding in the top of mature mangrove trees at the water edge. They kept high in the treetops although dropped down slightly in response to ‘pishing’ but moved off quickly. They were very mobile and although they did not give very good views a photograph was taken of one bird by Phil Roberts. The location of Either Mangroves is approximately 75 kilometres south, as the crow flies, of the southernmost location noted by Newton, almost doubling their known range and extending it to over 175 kilometres of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast. This sighting was the first for almost twenty years and the lack of records is interesting as a number of birdwatchers have been to the mangroves near Shuqaiq in recent years to look for Collared Kingfisher Todirhamphus chloris with no sightings of the White-eyes and Brian Meadows told me that he never saw or trapped any in the mangroves at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia during the ten years he was present, 1984-1994, possibly because all the trees were either stunted or young rather than mature. This is another possible new Arabian Endemic species but work needs to be carried out to ascertain if this is the case or not. Lou Regenmorter went to the same site as the one where we had seen the White-eyes in the hope of locating the birds again and was successful in seeing six birds in the same area. Lou managed to take a couple of digiscoped images of the birds before they moved off. Lou’s photos show more details than the one Phil took and it appears they are not the same as the Oriental White-eyes from Oman and differ from Abyssinian White-eye of the Saudi Arabian Mountains, with two photos shown below taken by me in Tanoumah, Asir Mountians in April 2014 and another in July 2013 at the Raydah Escarpment, Abha, Asir Mountains.

Mangrove White-eye sp

Mangrove White-eye sp

Abyssinian White-eye