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

Malaki Dam Lake

I went to the Malaki Dam Lake area in July (also known as Malakiyah, Wadi Jizan Dam or Hakima Dam) which 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.