African Paradise Flycatcher with brown Tail streamers - Tanoumah

Whilst birding Tanoumah I came across and photographed a male African Paradise Flycatcher with brown tail streamers as well as two females. This is the first record I have had like this of a bird with brown tail streamers as all the previous males I have seen have had white tail streamers. I have probably seen more than twenty males previously so the ratio of white to brown streamers must be very high in favour of the white colour.

Springtime - Quraish

May in the Asir is great for birding as most if not all the African breeding species have returned and additional passage migrants can be seen as well as the resident highland birds. We saw a few passage birds including an Olive-tree Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Red-backed Shrike, Turkestan Shrike, Common Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Whinchat. African breeders included African Paradise Flycatcher, Violet-backed Starling, Gambaga Flycatcher and African Pipit. Resident species photographed were Arabian Wheatear & Crested Lark. The weather at this time of year is very variable and goes from clear blue skys to thunderstorms in a short period of time. Luckily we made it back to the car just before the rain set in a few hours at lunchtime and where not able to get back out to early evening.

African Paradise Flycatcher - male

African Paradise Flycatcher - male

Arabian Wheatear

Arabian Wheatear

Arabian Wheatear 

Arabian Wheatear

Crested Lark

African Paradise Flycatcher - Tanoumah

The African Paradise Flycatcher is an uncommon breeding resident in the Tihamah, Southern Red Sea and wadi bottoms of the Asir as well as the high mountains of the Asir. Most records come from the well watched Abha and Tanoumah areas where birds build a small nest in the fork of a tree and normally lay three eggs. The female does most of the incubating but the male is always in attendance and does some of the work. The young constantly call to the adults and the adults feed the young very frequently with insects. On one day the male is the main food provider but the next day the female does most of the food collecting and feeding. The birds frequent tall juniper trees and prefer good stands of trees and vegetation to the more open areas. Birds are not easy to see in Saudi Arabia so seeing up to six birds in a day, in the Tanoumah area in summer, made for an exciting find.

More good birds from Tanoumah – Bird records by Ahmed AlKassim

Ahmed AlKassim who is an excellent bird photographer from Riyadh sent me a few of his photos recently and has kindly allowed me to use them on my website. I was with him when we saw an African Paradise Flycatcher nest with both parents in attendance but after a short while I left the nest site. Ahmed managed to get photos of Eurasian (Arabian) Magpie in the same area a species with a very restricted range that some people regard as a full species. Ahmed also took a nice photo of the little recorded African Pipit so did well photographing unusual species on his trip to the southwest.

African Paradise Flycatcher - male

Arabian Magpie

African Pipit

African Paradise Flycatcher on nest - Tanoumah

The African Paradise Flycatcher is a breeding resident in the Tihamah, Southern Red Sea and wadi bottoms of the Asir as well as the high mountains of the Asir. Most records come from the well watched Abha and Tanoumah areas where birds build a small nest in the fork of a tree and normally lay three eggs. The female does most of the incubating but the male is always in attendance and does some of the work. Birds are not easy to see in Saudi Arabia and finding nests is even more difficult. Some of the local photographers have become very good at finding birds nests in recent years including a number of African Paradise Flycatcher nests. On a recent trip to Tanoumah I was shown a nest by some photographers and took a couple of photos of the bird, shown below, before moving off to leave it in peace.

African Paradise Flycatchers - Raydah Escarpment

On the way back to the airport in Abha from Tanoumah area we stopped at the Raydah Escarpment for a few hours. The ranger station gate was open so we go into the reserve easily and drove down to the disused farm. The farm now has a new locked gate blocking access for vehicles along the small track but as we always walked there was no issue as it was easy to get around the outside of the gate. As we were at the location around midday it was relatively quiet but we still saw some good birds including two Arabian Waxbills. This was only the second time we had seen the species with the first in the reed beds at Malaki Dam near Jizan in April 2014. These two birds were perched in the low scrub of a large tree, very different habitat from the previous sighting. Two African Paradise Flycatchers were also seen here including a fantastic male with extra long tail streamers. Little Rock Thrush, Yemen Thrush, Yemen Linnet and Abyssinian White-eye were also common here. With a few Fan-tailed Ravens flying over.

African Paradise Flycatcher - female

African Paradise Flycatcher - male

Yemen Linnet

We then slowly made our way down the incredibly steep road to the small village at the bottom where the first bird I saw when getting out of the car was a Grey-headed Kingfisher. An African Grey Hornbill was sitting quietly in a large tree and a couple of Bruce’s Green Pigeons flew over. Violet-backed Starlings and Gambaga Flycatchers were also seen. Arabian Partridge could be heard calling from the steep cliffs but remained unseen. This was our tenth out of twelve Saudi Arabia Arabian endemics in a two day trip – a good result for two full days birding with virtually no sleep due to looking for owls and nightjars in the dark.  After Raydah we had a hour left so went to the top of Mount Soudah where there were plenty of Fan-tailed Ravens  as always and two Yemen Serins on the rocks at the top.

Gambaga Flycatcher

Violet-backed Starlings

Yemen Serin

Breeding Shikra at Sallal Al Dahna – Tanoumah

Sallal Al Dahna is a wadi or valley with large mature trees and a permanent pool of water with a small waterfall. The valley is situated about two kilometres from Tanoumah on the road to Abha. This site is good for seeing the increasingly rare Arabian Magpie. The taxonomic position of the Arabian Magpie Pica pica asirensisis is uncertain, but it is generally regarded as a subspecies of the European Magpie Pica pica with an isolated population endemic to the Asir mountains, Asir Province, southwest Saudi Arabia. The birds have a very restricted range from Abha about 150 kilometres north to An Numas. Unfortunately when we went on 11 & 12 July 2014 we could not find any Arabian Magpies but did find a disused nest of the birds in a mature tree in the valley bottom. In the same area we also located a breeding pair of Shikra. Shikra is a scarce breeding resident of the southwest of Saudi Arabia with a few scattered records of migrants elsewhere. The birds we saw were adult male and female and a juvenile. One was seen in flight high over the waterfall when we arrived but we later got very good views of all three birds sat in mature trees in the valley bottom. This was a new species for Saudi Arabia for Phil and I and with the excellent views made up for not seeing the Magpies.

Shikra

Shikra

Shikra

Shikra

Other good birds seen in the valley included at least two African Paradise Flycatchers that gave very good and close views as well as Brown Woodland Warbler and Abyssinian White-eyes. The most obvious birds were Fan-tailed Ravens seen on arrival with well over 50 birds flying about calling over the waterfall area. A few Palestinian Sunbirds, two Bruce’s Green Pigeons and a male Violet-backed Starling were other good birds seen here.

African Paradise Flycatcher

Fan-tailed Ravern

Sallal Al Dahna

Arabian Magpie Nest

Raydah Escarpment

The Raydah Escarpment (18 12.374N, 42 24.613E) is a first class site 15 kilometres from Abha signposted off the Al Souda road and has been protected to some degree since the 1980’s. The site is a very steep west-facing slope with crags. The escarpment, approximately 12 square kilometres in size, supports a more or less intact forest of mainly Juniperus excelsa with Olea europa on the uppermost slopes. Lush more deciduous vegetation occurs on the lower slopes. In the foothills below 1,500 m vegetation becomes much more Afrotropical with numerous Ficus trees and genera such as Commiphora, Aloe, Ceropegia and Caralluma being well represented. These lusher habitats of the foothills soon give way on the tihama to arid sandy deserts interspersed with very fertile irrigated fields where water runoff from the highlands can be controlled or where water is close to the surface. These tilled areas usually have high bunds around them and grow a variety of crops, including sugarcane, millet and maize. It is located in the biologically rich Asir Mountains and is also an Important Bird Area encompassing strata of highland and foothill habitat from 2800 meters to Wadi Jaw at 1350 meters, including a succession of vegetation from juniper dominated upper regions, with olive Oleo europaea, through to the Afrotropical foothills at Wadi Jaw with Ficus trees and where coffee growing occurs. This is the premier site in Saudi Arabia for trying to find the Arabian Endemic species with ten Arabian endemic bird species recorded in this reserve, as well as the Asir subspecies of the Eurasian Magpie and there are numerous Afrotropical species in the lower altitudes. The contrast in climate can be tremendous with cool, damp, cloudy and temperate conditions at the top to hot, oppressive tropical conditions at the bottom. The tarmac road down the escarpment is extremely steep and quite dangerous with numerous sharp turns and is not for the faint hearted. There are a number of places to stop off-road to look for birds but the best plan for birding would be to walk down the road birding on the way and then hitch a lift back up with one of the locals who also infrequently use the road. Care would, however, have to be taken, as there are plenty of Hamadryas Baboons in the park along with Arabian Wolf. One of the best areas for birding is Raydah Farm (18 11.876N, 42 24.579E), which is approximately 300 metres down from the summit, and there is a small garden of less than a hectare beside a tiny perennial stream. You will see the terraced fields on the way down and can park in a pull off area by the left side of the road just by the farm and walk back up and into the interesting areas. We birded the Raydah Escarpment on the late afternoon of 4 and 5 July, in the company of Lou Regenmorter, as well as the morning of 6 July.

Yemen Thrush

Yemen Linnet

Little Rock Thrush

Palestine Sunbird

African Paradise Flycatcher

Abyssinian White-eye

Several good birds were seen at the Raydah Farm including a female African Paradise Flycatcher, 10+ Dusky Turtle Doves, five Little Rock Thrushes, one Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, one Arabian Serin, five Abyssinian White-eye, three Yemen Linnets, 5+ Ruppell’s Weavers, one Palestinian Sunbird, ten Violet-backed Starlings, two Fan-tailed Ravens and four Yemen Thrushes. All of the Arabian Endemics can be found in this area but despite our efforts we failed with the ones we were looking for; Philby’s Partridge, Yemen Serin and Arabian Waxbill. There were good numbers of the Arabian Endemic Arabian Wheatear, Yemen Thrush and Yemen Linnet on the way down to Raydah Village as well as a few Red-breasted Wheatears which are restricted to the highlands of Saudi Arabia. 

Arabian Wheatear

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Arabian Partridge

Arabian Partridge

Arabian Partridge

A very good dried up wadi was located on the left hand side of the road by Raydah Village that went towards a farm and then on down a dried up wadi. Here we had two Grey-headed Kingfishers, one African Grey Hornbill (Phil), 30+ Bruce’s Green Pigeons, 10+ Arabian Serins, one Palestine Sunbird, one Shinning Sunbird, one Green Bee-eater, one Eurasian Hoopoe, 5+ White-spectacled Bulbuls and one White-browed Coucal on two different days. A large number of Little Swift (50+) were seen flying over every visit and twice we saw Arabian Partridge here, the first time a group of six flew across the road and landed on the far side of the wadi giving reasonable views and the second on the last day whilst leaving the site we saw two on the roadside that gave excellent views as they moved away from us. Luckily their reluctance to fly aided in getting good views.