African Palm Swift – Sunbah Farms

Whilst birding Sunbah Farms just north of Jizan we can across a few African Palm Swift over the pivot fields. This species is an uncommon breeding resident in Saudi Arabia only found in the Tihamah and in wadis in the lower foothillsof the southwest, south from al-Wasqah. The favour Doum Palm which has closely packed drooping fronds, which provide ideal nesting and roosting sites. They can often be found over pivot irrigation fields catching a variety of flying insects, including flies, termites, ants, beetles and bugs where they are regularly seen in small groups of less than ten birds. They are fast flying and difficult to photograph, with the below my best efforts.

Birding Malaki Dam Lake – Abu Arish

Whilst birding Malaki Dam Lake near Abu Arish Phil Roberts and I saw a few good birds. We were mainly there to try to see and record Nubian and Plain Nightjars during the night but also spent some daylight time looking for other birds. The lake is a huge expanse of water with semi cultivated fields nearby and other rough hillsides made of volcanic rock. The water areas are good for Eurasian Spoonbills and Glossy Ibis and the trees for doves where Red-eyed Dove has been seen previously. We failed to see any Red-eyed Doves but located plenty of similar African Collared Doves. The uncommon Abyssinian Roller was seen on some overhead wires and African Palm Swifts were flying over.

Eurasian Spoonbill

Glossy Ibis 

Glossy Ibis

African Collared Dove 

African Palm Swift

African Palm Swift

Malaki Dam Lake

Zitting Cisticola at Phil’s Fields – Sabya

A visit to Phil’s Fields around midday was an extremely hot and tiring few hours birding but as always a few good birds were seen. The fields are one of the best places in the Kingdom for locating Zitting Cisticola and Singing Bush Lark. Both of these species occur here in high densities and can be seen flying around calling and singing as well as perched on the grass stems in the case of the Cisticola or on the ground in the water irrigation tracks in the case of the lark. The trees and scrub at the edge of these fields is a good place to see Ruppell’s Weavers, Black Scrub Robins and Arabian Babblers with good numbers of both in residence and both birds coming down to drink from a leaking water pipe in one place.

Zitting Cisticola

Singing Bush Lark

Singing Bush Lark

African Palm Swift

Arabian Babbler

Ruppell's Weaver

Zitting Cisticola & Four Crested Honey Buzzards – Phil’s Fields

We spent midday of 4 April birding two very large grassy fields inland from Sabya along the main Ad Dabi to Sabya road (17 07.58N, 42 41.62E) known as Phil’s Fileds. The fields were on the right hand side of the road going towards Sabya and had large pivot irrigation equipment stored by them. The fields were very green with tall plants growing in them and some quite wide tracks where the pivot irrigation wheels had driven. The area is good for Zitting Cisticola & Singing Bushlarks but the first birds seen on getting out of the car were four Crested Honey Buzzards. All four birds were using the midday thermals to migrate and remained quite high but low enough for the main identification features to be seen.

As soon as we entered the field we heard Zitting Cisticola with a number of birds song flighting over the field and occasionally landing on the vegetation where they could be viewed. A walk across the fields soon produced 10+ Singing Bushlarks flushed from the grass and the small size and bright underwing coverts could clearly be seen. Several birds gave song flights but most were silent and flew and went to cover in the long grass.

Zitting Cisticola

Singing Bush Lark

Singing Bush Lark

Other good birds seen included two Little Green Bee-eaters, six Black Bush Robins and 20+ African Silverbills. 37 Western Cattle Egrets, several Crested Larks and four African Palm Swifts were flying about. Five Common Myna, 20+ Ruppell’s Weavers and a large flock of House Sparrows were also seen and shortly after leaving the fields we found a pale Long-legged Buzzard flying over.

Black Bush Robin

African Silverbill

African Palm Swift

Long-legged Buzzard

Sabya Waste Water Lagoons

In the morning of 2 July we went to the Sabya Waste Water Lagoons east of Sabya (17 10.513N, 42 48.129E). This wastewater facility has seven or eight pools that are all easily worked and the birds are relatively confident as the road is used by trucks to dump the waste water, so the birds are used to traffic. Mike Jennings found a number of Greater Painted Snipe here in July 2010, a new species for Saudi Arabia, and speculated these birds may be breeding here. The birds were seen again in March 2013 by Lou Regenmorter and again in May 2013 by Lou, Rob Tovey and Mansur Al Fahad this time with young, proving breeding for the first time in Arabia. We went to the site to look for the birds but found it relatively difficult as the temperature and humidity were high making it less than pleasant to be outside birding. We failed to find the Greater Painted Snipe on the lagoon where Lou and Rob had seen them but located a pair on a nearby lagoon after a few hours of searching.

Greater Painted Snipe

We also located a few other good birds at this site including 20+ Squacco Herons, one Grey Heron, 20+ Spur-winged Lapwings, 10+ breeding Black-winged Stilts two Green Sandpipers and four Common Sandpipers. Other water birds included 10+ Glossy Ibis and 50+ Western Cattle Egrets that appeared to be breeding in the flooded trees on the site. Five Whiskered Terns were hawking insects over the lagoons that had plenty of Common Moorhen on them and five Green Bee-eaters were perched in the bushes by the side of the lake with 50+ Ruppell’s Weavers. Three African Palm Swifts and three Barn Swallows were seen in the air over the site and other birds seen included five Crested Larks, five White-spectacled Bulbuls, three African Collared Doves, ten Laughing Doves and five Namaqua Doves.

African Palm Swift

Glossy Ibis & Western Cattle Egret

Glossy Ibis

Green Bee-eater

Spur-winged Plover

Western Cattle Egret

Malaki Dam Lake

Malaki Dam (also known as Malakiyah, Wadi Jizan Dam or Hakima Dam) is probably the largest and most variable expanse of freshwater habitats in the southwestern provinces of Saudi Arabia. This area is a large lake (17 04.72N, 42 97.88E) at the edge of the Asir foothills, 15km east of Abu Arish. It is fed by four main wadis and at high water levels the lake spreads to over ten square kilometres and has a large catchment area extending south into Yemen. The reservoir is bordered to the north by basaltic lava plains and to the south several rocky outcrops which form the edge of Wadi Juwwah, another excellent birding area. The surrounding acacia and salvadora scrubland is interspersed with Tamarix where the hills are grazed and cultivated with some areas with shallow water, the dead remains of flooded trees forming ideal roost sites for herons and egrets. The Lake is on a main migration route and its surrounding area has one of the highest diversities of breeding birds in Arabia with many species being of Afro-tropical origin accounting for the large number of species recorded. We bird-watched the area twice, once on the 1 July, our first morning after first looking at the coast at Jizan Corniche and the second time two days later, on 3 July when we arrived at the location at first light. It took us a bit of time to find the site on the first day, but it is easily located if you drive out of Abu Arish and continue on the road until the check point. Go through the check point for about two kilometres and then you will see a turn to the right which goes to Wadi Juwwah and a dirt track to the left which goes to the lake. This is only a small arm of the lake but it is less disturbed and has easier access than the other areas. Going to the Dam is useless, as you will not be allowed access through the gate. This site is excellent for the endemic Arabian Waxbill in the winter and spring, when flocks can be seen in the reeds and other vegetation near to the water, but by the mid-summer period all the birds appeared to have moved off and we failed to find any. There were, however, plenty of birds to see in this area and we stayed until dark hoping for Nubian Nightjar but failed to locate any along the dirt tracks by the side of the lake. This area is regarded by many of the birders who have bird-watched Saudi Arabia as the best single site in the entire country.

Ruppell's Waver making nest

The lake itself held a good amount of water and therefore had good numbers of water birds. Waders included 10+ Black-tailed Godwits, one Spur-winged Plover, one Common Sandpiper, Kentish Plover, five Green Sandpipers, six Common Greenshanks and five Black-winged Stilts. Ten Eurasian Spoonbill including adults and juveniles were present along with ten Hamerkops, 50+ Glossy Ibis, 10 Squacco Herons, one Little Bittern, three Western Cattle Egrets, one Little Egret and one Grey Heron. Other water birds included a Caspian Tern, three Little Terns, one adult male Pintail, three Northern Shoveler and an adult male Ferruginous Duck. Ten Common Moorhen and three Eurasian Coots were also seen and three Pink-backed Pelicans were a long way inland.

Black-tailed Godwit

Common Greenshank

Eurasian Spoonbill - adult

Eurasian Spoonbill - juvenile

Squacco Heron

Non water birds included three White-throated Bee-eaters, three African Collared Doves, five Zitting Cisticolas, ten Graceful Prinias, 20+ Ruppells Weavers, five Laughing Doves, 20+ Namaqua Doves, Eurasian Hoopoe and Arabian Babbler. Desert Lark was quite common but was very different to the pale sub-species we get in the Eastern Province being much darker in colouration. A few swifts were seen including 20+ African Palm Swifts and five Little Swifts hunting insects low over the water.

Arabian Babbler

African Palm Swift

Little Swift

An early morning trip arriving at first light 3 July proved very successful when we found two Gabar Goshawks sitting in a bush at the side of the track into the site. One was an adult male and the other a juvenile. We also had two White-browed Coucals in the same place, both of which were new specie for me in Saudi Arabia as well as an Abyssinian Roller. Other birds included 10+ Crested Larks, one Black-crowned Sparrow-lark, Nile Valley Sunbird, three White-spectacled Bulbul, 10+ Arabian Babblers and three Black Scrub Robins.

Gabar Goshawk - juvenile

Gabar Goshawk - adult

White-browed Coucal

We then went down to the lake and had similar birds to our previous trip. Whilst walking around looking for passerines in the reeds I saw a Small Buttonquail running along the edge of a field (17 01.582N, 42 59.694E). Luckily the species is not keen to flush and I got Phil onto the bird which gave reasonable views running down furrows and through the vegetation. This is a little known species in Saudi Arabia where it has been noted as an apparently rare resident in the extreme south-west (April bird observations in Saudi Arabia - King 1978). As far as I am aware there have been no recent records of the species and it is not recorded as being present in Saudi Arabia in the most recent field guide to the region the Helm Field Guides Birds of the Middle East - Richard Porter & Simon Aspinall (Aug 2010). Luckily I got a couple of photographs of the bird to confirm identification although it was obviously a Buttonquail on size and Small Buttonquail is the only Buttonquail of the region. As it is a poorly marked bird it is presumed to be a male as they are the duller of the two types in this species. Amazingly I had seen one the previous day near Sabya and then latter the same day saw another walking along the edge of the reeds across the lake in a different area. These sightings show the species is probably not rare but just poorly recorded, which is not too surprising given the low number of birders in Saudi Arabia, the species skulking nature, reluctance to fly and the fact that it is incredibly hot and humid and walking about in fields is probably not done too much even by birders who do go to the south-west in the summer.

Small Buttonquail