Farasan Islands Boat Trip

Whilst visiting the Farasan Islands we made a boat trip to see birds on the offshore islands. The bots can be hired from local fisherman at a rate of 150-200 SAR per hour, and we took a boat from the harbor next to the main port where the island ferry lands and departs. As a foreigner, you need to have your iqama or passport with you as it is checked by the coastguard office before you can leave, which is situated next to the harbor itself. The trip time starts only after the all clear from coastguards has been obtained. We spent three hours on the boat and saw birds at very close range including Pink-backed Pelican in the harbor as we were leaving as well as offshore. Brown Booby was a common breeding bird on the offshore islands with birds nesting close to the edge of islands allowing very close approach and never leaving their nests. Other breeding birds seen in good numbers included both Sooty Gull and White-eyed Gull, with the former much more common than the latter. Good number of terns were seen fishing offshore that were mainly White-cheeked Tern but several Bridled Tern were in amongst them. The terns looked bluish on the underparts due to the strong sunlight reflecting the colour of the shallow blue-green water onto the white undersides of the terns. 

Brown Booby

Brown Booby

Brown Booby

Pink-backed Pelican

Pink-backed Pelican

Sooty Gull

White-eyed Gull

White-eyed Gull

Pink-backed Pelican & Brown Booby – Jizan fish market

At the Jizan fish Market on the Red Sea coast in southwest Saudi Arabia, the fish traders occasionally come out and put all the fish offal in the road for the gulls. When the fish waste was out other birds such as Pink-backed Pelicans and Brown Booby will come in and try their luck. There was huge commotion and fighting with the bigger Booby and pelicans making off with food and the gulls fighting for the rest. The site is great for getting close to the birds feeding on the fish waste but is quite busy with people.

Pink-backed Pelican 

Pink-backed Pelican 

Pink-backed Pelican 

Brown Booby

Brown Booby at Sharma – Record by Euan Fergusson

Whilst staying at Sharma, on the Red Sea coast of northwest Saudi Arabia, Euan Fergusson saw Brown Booby. Brown Booby is an uncommon resident of the Red Sea, where it mainly occurs offshore. They breed on the Farasan Islands as well as other islands in the Red Sea and wander north to the Gulf of Akaba in winter. S. l. plotus is the subspecies we get in Saudi Arabia and it occurs from the Red Sea and tropical Indian Ocean east to northern Australia and the central Pacific Ocean. The race plotus is the largest and has a blackish head and neck almost concolorous with rest of upperpart. Its iris is grey to yellowish grey with narrower pale yellow outer ring. The bill is yellowish horn to pale horn with bluish or greyish cast, facial skin and gular pouch bluish grey to blue, legs pale greenish yellow. The female has an ivory or pale horn coloured bill, slightly tinged either yellowish or pale greenish. The facial and gular skin are pale greenish yellow, with the legs coloured like the facial skin or slightly more greenish. Birds are strictly marine, feeding mostly in inshore waters. They breed mainly on bare, rocky islands or coral atolls.

Brown Booby - Jizan fish market

Whilst photographing gulls at Jizan fish market, Phil saw a Brown Booby Sula leucogaster flying in and alerted me to its presence. The bird had been seen the day before at the fish harbor, but this time was much closer, flying around and occasionally over the fish market. It perched on the roof of the market at one stage and remained there until a collection of fish waste was thrown out and all gulls and the Booby flew down to eat the scraps. As the Brown Booby was at least twice the size of any gull present it took the largest flatfish and after eating it flew off in the direction of the harbour. The close fly past allowed a number of photographs to be taken of the bird that are not easy to see and photograph from the mainland. Brown Booby is an uncommon resident of the Red Sea, where it mainly occurs offshore. They breed on the Farasan Islands as well as other islands in the Red Sea and wander north to the Gulf of Akaba in winter. S. l. plotus is the subspecies we get in Saudi Arabia and it occurs from the Red Sea and tropical Indian Ocean east to northern Australia and the central Pacific Ocean. The race plotus is the largest and has a blackish head and neck almost concolorous with rest of upperpart. Its iris is grey to yellowish grey with narrower pale yellow outer ring. The bill is yellowish horn to pale horn with bluish or greyish cast, facial skin and gular pouch bluish grey to blue, legs pale greenish yellow. The female has an ivory or pale horn coloured bill, slightly tinged either yellowish or pale greenish. The facial and gular skin are pale greenish yellow, with the legs coloured like the facial skin or slightly more greenish. Birds are strictly marine, feeding mostly in inshore waters. They breed mainly on bare, rocky islands or coral atolls.

Brown Noddy & Sooty Falcon - Farasan Offshore Islands

On one day we hired a boat from just south of the Farasan Coral Resort. We left at 06:00 hrs and kept the boat for five hours. The boats cost 150-200 SAR per hour which it may be possible to get for a cheaper rate as we were short of time and had no car so did not try to negotiate too hard although the original price was 250 SAR per hour. We started by looking for dolphins but failed to see any and then went to a rocky island to look for a few birds and found my two target species quite quickly, a Brown Noddy and a Sooty Falcon. I only saw one Brown Noddy but it was perched in full view on a rocky island, although taking photographs of it was not easy as it was almost directly into the sun.

Brown Noddy

Brown Noddy

 We also saw Pink-backed Pelican, Striated Herons, Brown Boobys, Lesser Crested Terns, Little Terns, Common Redshanks, Common Sandpipers and Sooty Gulls. We found a big feeding flock of terns but nothing unusual appeared to be in with them. After spending some time looking at the fish and collecting shells with the family, where I saw a Greater Hoopoe Lark, we returned to try to find the dolphins. Luckily I found a huge group, with a minimum of fifty animals, on the way back.

Brown Booby

Pink-backed Pelican

Sooty Gull

A very tired Whinchat landed on the boat but was so close I could hardly photograph it. The boat driver caught the bird by hand but we made him release it. It stayed on the boat for some time before flying off to a close by island. This was a real reminder of how difficult it is for small birds to migrate long distances and how tired they get in the process.

Offshore Island - Farasan Islands

Whinchat

Jizan Corniche

This site (16 55.10N, 43 32.70E) is one of the main birding locations in the region and has good wader habitat from Jizan south to the Yemen border approximately 45 kilometres away. Densities of birds are on average much higher in Jizan than at neighbouring sites, due to the sewage outfalls that enter the sea from Jizan city. As a result the area holds the highest concentration of shorebirds along the Saudi Red Sea coast. The main site is a four kilometre long by 500 metre wide stretch of muddy and mud-sand intertidal flats, stretching from Jizan Port to the northern edge of the city. The flats, enriched by sewage outfall from Jizan city, where in the past fringed by mangroves, but all these areas have now been destroyed by land reclamation projects. The site is easily viewed from the cornice road and in the early morning the sun is behind the observer allowing good viewing conditions. As a result of this we went to the location at first light on 1 July, the first morning of our trip, and although we did not arrive at the hotel until after midnight we were up before first light to check the site out. We went again on the afternoon of 6 July on the way to the airport when the tide was out and more waders could be seen.

Pink-backed Pelican

Caspian Tern

Crab Plover

Greater Flamingos

The site held small numbers of waders, due to the mid-summer time of year, with a good location being a large stream just north of the Jazan Inn Hotel where waders are pushed up when the tide was high. Here we saw six Eurasian Spoonbill, three Terek Sandpipers, 200+ Crab Plovers, three Bar-tailed Godwits, 100 Common Redshanks, three Spotted Redshanks, four Marsh Sandpipers, four Common Greenshanks, 20 Lesser Sand Plovers, 50+ Greater Sand Plovers of both sub-species, five Kentish Plovers, three Eurasian Curlews, two Whimbrels, three Eurasian Oystercatchers, three Grey Plovers and four Ruddy Turnstones. Other birds that were seen here included, Caspian Tern and my first new species in Saudi Arabia of the trip Pink-backed Pelican of which we saw over 200 birds. Two Black-crowned Sparrow Larks and a small party of six African Silverbills were also seen here along with Common Myna and House Sparrow. 

Eurasian Spoonbills

Eurasian Spoonbill

Greater Sand Plover

The seaward side of the Corniche had Western Osprey perched on a lamppost, with tens of Pink-backed Pelicans on the same posts, five Lesser Crested Terns, six Swift Terns, three Indian Reef Heron, 20+ Greater Flamingoes and several Sooty Gulls. Travelling further down towards the port we found a small fishing boat harbor near to the fish market that was full of gulls. Sooty Gull was common here with over one hundred birds seen, 10+ White-eyed Gulls, nine Baltic Gulls, three Caspian Gulls, 75+ Slender-billed Gulls and a Brown Booby flew overhead and landed on a nearby fishing boat. A few Lesser Crested Terns, Swift Terns and Greater Flamingoes were also present. Further south past the port we saw our only three White-cheeked Terns of the trip.

Western Osprey

Brown Booby

Sooty Gull

Slender-billed Gull

Baltic Gull

Lesser Crested Tern

Swift Tern

When the tide goes out some areas of exposed mudflats are attractive to the waders and extremely good views of the Crab Plovers can be had. Here we also saw Eurasian Spoonbill, 200+ Crab Plovers, Common Redshanks, Common Greenshanks, Lesser Sand Plovers, Greater Sand Plovers, Eurasian Curlews, Whimbrels, Eurasian Oystercatchers and Grey Plovers. Thirty House Crows and a Brown-necked Raven were seen along the Corniche scavenging for food.

Crab Plover

Brown Boobies the Farasan Banks – Bird records by Claudia Buholzer Nassier

I received a message from Claudia Buholzer Nassier who is living in Jeddah and has just come back from a dive trip to the Farasan Banks on a boat. She mentioned that one afternoon she visited a little uninhabited island on the Farasan Banks and discovered a kind of a shelter with lovely birds. These birds turned out to be breeding Brown Boobies that breed on islands in the Red Sea but not elsewhere in Saudi Arabia. Claudia managed to take some great photos of the birds that were breeding and very kindly allowed me to use them on my website. All photographs remain copyright of Claudia Buholzer Nassier. Brown Booby has an extended breeding season with a winter breeding schedule and a summer one so birds are on eggs or with young for much of the year. I have not seen Brown Booby in Saudi Arabia yet as I live on the other coast to where these pictures were taken.