A few Wheatears - Ushaiqer

Whilst birding the rocky desert near Ushaiqer I came across several Wheatear species. Isabelline Wheatear was seen a couple of times and Iranian Wheatear Oenanthe persicapreviously a subspecies of Eastern Morning Wheatear more often. The most common wheatear was White-crowned, which I have posted about already. Birds were not easy to photograph as they were constantly on the move. Several Blackstarts were also located in the area.

Isabelline Wheatear

Iranian Wheatear

Iranian Wheatear

Blackstart

Blackstart - Ushaiqer

Whilst birding the Ushaiqer dump site 175 kilometres northwest of Riyadh I came across a couple of Blackstarts. The species is a common resident of rocky desert areas throughout with the exception of the east and northeast. Birds occur eastwards to Riyadh where it is a fairly common breeding resident at the base of the escarpment, the area where these birds were seen. The bird is named after the fact it has a black tail, similar to the red tail of Redstart. Birds are often difficult to get good photos of due to their colouration but in winter they seemed more amenable to staying still allowing better photographic opportunities. Poor light did not help but the best photo is below.

Birding the Riyadh River – Al Hair

I went birding to the Riyadh River near Al Hair recently. It is an amazing site with running river, reed beds and nearby pivot irrigation fields. As I live four hours drive away from Riyadh, I have not been before, but this will certainly not be my last trip. On arrival at the site I saw a huge flock of over one hundred Black-crowned Night Herons, easily the largest number I have seen in Saudi Arabia. A Western Osprey was sitting in a tree and groups of Mallard and Pintail were flying around. There were six or more White-throated Kingfishers and plenty of Arabian Bee-eaters sitting around along with some Crested Larks. One pivot irrigation field held two European Rollers and plenty of Streaked Weavers, Arabian Golden Sparrows, Red Avadavat and Spanish Sparrows as well as a few Black Scrub Robin. The rocky areas nearby held Blackstart and Eastern Morning Wheatears. The Riyadh area is the closest place Arabian Bee-eater and Blackstart occur to the Eastern Province although both are common further west and south. The pools and rivers held large numbers of Grey Heron and a few Purple Heron and Common Moorhen were everywhere. 

Arabian Bee-eater

Arabian Bee-eater

Arabian Bee-eater

Black-crowned Night Heron

Blackstart

Crested Lark

Eastern Mourning Wheatear

European Roller

Mallard

Namaqua Dove

Spanish Sparrow

Blackstart – Raydah Escarpment

Whilst birding the Raydah Escarpment we found a number of Blackstart near the wadi bottom and village. The species is a common resident of rocky desert areas throughout with the exception of the east and northeast. Birds occur eastwards to Riyadh where it is a fairly common breeding resident at the base of the escarpment. The bird is named after the fact it has a black tail, similar to the red tail of Redstart. Birds are often difficult to get good photos of due to their colouration but in winter they seemed more amenable to staying still allowing better photographic opportunities.

Birding the Raydah Escarpment near Abha – Bird records by Munzir Khan

Munzir went birding to the southwest of the Kingdom on 27 June and went to the Raydah Escarpment. This is a site near Abha and is the best place to see Arabian Partridge first thing in the morning along the roadside. Driving down the escarpment is good but the road is very steep. Common endemics seen at this site include Yemen Linnet, Yemen Thrush and Arabian Wheatear along the roadside. Arabian Serin can be seen at the farm and the village at the bottom of the escarpment. Munzir sent me some of his photos taken there and has kindly allowed me to use them on my website some of which are shown below.

Arabian Partridge

African Grey Hornbill

Blackstart

Cinnamon Breasted Bunting

Little Rock Thrush

White-spectacled Bulbul

African birds at the bottom of the Raydah Escarpment - Abha

Whilst birding the lower areas of the Raydah Escarpment in late March I saw a number of African species. Birds seen included African Grey Hornbill, Violet-backed Starling, Black-crowned Tchagra, Bruce’s Green Pigeon and White-browed Coucal. Bruce’s Green Pigeon is an interesting species as it only eats the fruit of a single type of fig tree. No White-throated Bee-eaters or Grey-headed Kingfishers were located so maybe we were too early for these birds to have arrived back from Africa. A few passerine migrants were also seen including a number of Common Blackcap. Resident species seen included Blackstart as well as Arabian Green Bee-eater and endemics recorded included the scarce Arabian Waxbill and the commoner Arabian Serin.

White-browed Coucal

Bruce Green Pigeon

Bruce Green Pigeon

Bruce Green Pigeon

Bruce Green Pigeon

Common Chiffchaff

Tristrams Starling 

Blackstart

African Olive Pigeon – Raydah Esacarpment

Whilst birdwatching in the Raydah Esacarpment recently Phil Robrts and I saw two African Olive Pigeons. This was a species we had been looking for but had failed to see on many previous trips to the southwest of the Kingdom. It was only discovered as a new species for Saudi Arabia in the mid 1980’s by Mike Jennings. JENNINGS, M. C. 1986. The Olive Pigeon Columba arquatrix on Jebel Suda, Asir Province: a new bird species for Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula. J. Saudi Arab. Nat. Hist. Soc. (2)6:35-36. The birds we saw were seen just above the Raydah Farm where a number of other good birds were also seen including Yemen Thrush, Yemen Serin and Palestine Sunbird. We birded the entire valley seeing good birds in many places and plenty of Blackstart are the village near the bottom where African Grey-headed Kingfisher and Bruce’s Green Pigeon were also seen.

African Olive Pigeon

Yemen Thrush

Palestine Sunbird

Palestine Sunbird

Blackstart

Blackstart

Blackstart

Arabian Serin – Taif National Park

A visit to Taif National Park, a highland area with acacia scrubland and rocky hillsides allowed us good views of Arabian Serin a species that differs from Yemen Serin by having a less obviously streaked crown, darker cheeks, no dark moustachial stripe, greenish (not brown) rump, slightly darker underparts and a less sharply pointed bill without contrastingly paler lower mandible. They occur in dry, open rocky hillsides and mountain tops with trees, bushes and shrubs, as well as in areas of sparse vegetation, scattered shrubs, bushes or well-wooded areas and edges of cultivation manly from 1000 – 2800 metres. The mainly feed on seeds and Acacia pods and often forage on ground and in vegetation where they are often seen in pairs or small groups, possibly family parties. Other good birds seen in the National Park included Blackstart, Desert Lark and Arabian Babbler.

Arabian Serin

Arabian Serin

Arabian Serin

Arabian Serin

Blackstart

Some very good larks – Thumamah

Phil and I set off from Dhahran at 02:30 hrs to go to Thumamah a location just north of Riyadh. The journey took over four hours and we were in search of larks. We went as there was very little in the Eastern Province and the ‘patch’ had had nothing for a few days and we had not had much luck looking for Larks in the north of the Eastern Province on previous trips. I had seen on Brian James website that he and Lou Regenmorter had seen Thick-billed Lark, Bar-tailed Lark and Temminck’s Lark at Thumamah a month previously and as it sounded like there were a few good birds and many species we do not see in the Eastern Province at this location we decided to go and do a days birding there. I would like to thank Lou for sending us the grid reference of where he had seen the Thick-billed Larks and we soon found the wadi where they had been seen. It was already 07:00 hrs and we set off walking the wadi looking for the larks. Immediately we located a number of Desert Larks, that were a sandy brown colour rather than the whitish birds we get in the Eastern Province and over the next couple of hours we located at least 20 Desert Larks. A small party of Bar-tailed Larks then put in an appearance, a new Saudi Arabian bird for me that was quickly followed by another new species in Trumpeter Finch. There were well over 100 Trumpeter Finches seen during the day with most keeping to the shade of the trees when the temperature rose above 35 degrees Celsius. Several Eastern Olivaceous Warblers were in the trees along with five Blackstarts, three White-crowned Wheatears and a Little Green Bee-eater. After a lot of walking and the temperature rising we still had not seen either Thick-billed Lark or Temminck’s Lark. After a drink and a rest we moved across the road to another small wadi where I will tell you about my third new species in Saudi Arabia for the day in the next blog.

Desert Lark

Desert Lark

Desert Lark

Trumpeter Finch

Trumpeter Finch

Trumpeter Finch

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Blackstart