Birding Alheefah Park - Tanoumah

Alheefah Park is normally very popular but as it was Ramadan when we were there, the number of people was much less than normal. The park is right on the escarpment edge and has breathtaking views, and is covered by large juniper trees and acacia scrub. The large trees are good places to see birds and Phil Roberts located a small group of Bruce’s Green Pigeons in good light where I managed to get a few good photos. There are plenty of rocks and hillsides and we heard Phlby’s Partridge calling soon after arriving and eventually located a single bird calling from the top of a rocky hill. As it was getting late and we want to look for owls we did not stay too long at the site with the only other bird photographed a male Palestine Sunbird.

Bruce's Green Pigeon

Bruce's Green Pigeon

Bruce's Green Pigeon

Palestine Sunbird

Philby's Partridge

Philby’s Partridge – Abha area

Whilst birding recently in the Abha area I came across a good number of Philby’s Partridge Alectoris philbyi.This is a scarce resident of the south-west highlands and is related to the Chukar & Red-legged Partridge and is native to south-western Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It can be easily identified from other partridges by the black cheeks and throat and a narrow white stripe from the bill to behind the eye separating the black from the greyish-blue head. Both sexes look alike, although males may be slightly larger in size and have a tarsal knob. The best sites for locating the species are the terrace fields near Tanoumah, the dry scrub covered hillsides on Jebal Souda plateau and the area around Al Baha. They prefer juniper dominated habitats where rocky knolls & clearings occur and occurs from 1500 – 3000 metre elevations. Numbers have declined significantly in the Jebal Soudah area, probably due to increased human activity in the area and even at locations where birds are seen they are very timid and do not allow close approach. Luckily I got close to a number of birds from the car and managed to take my best photos yet of the species some of which are show below.

Phillby’s Partridge - Tanoumah

Philby’s Partridge Alectoris philbyi is a scarce resident of the south-west highlands. The best sites for locating the species are the terrace fields near Tanoumah, the dry scrub covered hillsides on Jebal Souda plateau and the area around Al Baha. They prefer juniper dominated habitats where rocky knolls & clearings occur and ocurs from 1500 – 3000 metre elevations. Numbers have declined significantly in the Jebal Soudah area, probably due to increased human activity in the area. The area of Tanoumah seems to be the best place in the Kingdom for seeing the species but birds are very flighty and will not allow close approach. The Philby’s Partridge is related to the Chukar & Red-legged Partridge and is native to south-western Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It can be easily identified from other partridges by the black cheeks and throat and a narrow white stripe from the bill to behind the eye separating the black from the greyish-blue head. Both sexes look alike, although males may be slightly larger in size and have a tarsal knob.

Phillby’s Partridge

Philby’s Partridge Alectoris philbyi is a rare resident of the south-west highlands. The best sites for locating the species are the terrace fields near Tanoumah, the dry scrub covered hillsides on Jebal Souda plateau and the area around Al Baha. They prefer juniper dominated habitats where rocky knolls & clearings occur and ocurs from 1500 – 3000 metre elevations. Numbers have declined significantly in the Jebal Soudah area, probably due to increased human activity in the area. The Philby’s Partridge is related to the Chukar & Red-legged Partridge and is native to south-western Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It can be easily identified from other partridges by the black cheeks and throat and a narrow white stripe from the bill to behind the eye separating the black from the greyish-blue head. Both sexes look alike, although males may be slightly larger in size and have a tarsal knob.

Birding Tanoumah – Tanoumah

The Tanoumah area is probably the best area in the country for seeing the endemic species. It holds all the endemics occurring in Saudi Arabia with the exception of Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak as well as the three subspecies often also regarded as species, Arabian Magpie, Arabian Spotted Eagle Owl and Arabian Green Bee-eater. I saw all the endemics and the three subspecies with the exception of Arabian Partridge on my last visit to the area and saw the Arabian Partridge at the Raydah Escarpment near Abha as well. Apart from all the endemics, there are many other southwest specialities such as Arabian Warbler, Brown Woodland Warbler, Dusky Turtle Dove, Gambaga Flycatcher, Little Rock Thrush, Spectacled Bulbul and Tristram’s Starling. As the area is in the high mountains at around 2000 metres above sea level, some other interesting birds such as Alpine Swift and Rock Dove may be seen. As the tempertures are much lower in the mountains than the nearby plains and coast it is possible to spend the entire day birdwatching on foot making for a pleasant and enjoyable day in the field. 

Yemen Thrush

Yemen Warbler

Philby's Partridge

Tanoumah

Arabian Warbler

Arabian Wheatear

Arabian Wheatear

Brown Woodland Warbler

Dusky Turtle Dove

Gambaga Flycatcher

Little Rock Thrush

White-spectacled Bulbul

Rock Dove

Tristram's Starling

Ten species of Arabian Endemic at Al Mehfar Park – Tanoumah

During the weekend of 19-20 July, Phil Roberts and I went to the southwest of Saudi Arabia for a birding trip. This was a very busy and long weekend with little sleep as we were birding on foot all day and then looking for owls and nightjars all night. We birded the Al Mehfar Park area for most of the day on 20 June and saw plenty of good birds including ten of the thirteen Arabian Endemics that occur in Saudi Arabia including: Philby’s Partridge, Arabian Partridge, Arabian Scops Owl, Arabian Woodpecker, Yemen Warbler, Yemen Thrush, Arabian Wheatear, Yemen Serin, Arabian Serin & Yemen Linnet. The ones we failed to see were: Arabian Waxbill, Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak and Arabian Spotted Eagle Owl. As it started getting light we went to the more bare area of the site with large boulders in the hope of seeing Philby’s Partridge where we located several small groups totaling 16 birds. Other birds seen included; Five Arabian Scops Owls, four Eurasian Hoopoes, five Arabian Woodpeckers, three Fan Tailed Ravens, six Violet-backed Starlings, 15 Tristram's Starlings, five Yemen Thrushs, 10 White-spectacled Bulbul, Crested Lark, two Barn Swallows, two Pale Crag Martins, six Red-rumped Swallow, four Brown Woodland Warblers, six Streaked Scrub Warblers, African Paradise Flycatcher, Arabian Warbler, three Abyssinian White-eyes, four Arabian Wheatears, four Little Rock Thrushes, seven Gambaga Flycatchers, five Palestine Sunbirds, House Sparrow, Long-billed Pipit, three Arabian Serins 35 Yemen Serins, 30 Yemen Linnets and two Cinammon-breasted Buntings.

Arabian Wheatear - male

Arabian Woodpecker - male

Arabian Woodpecker - male

Little Rock Thrush

Palestine Sunbird

Philby's Partridge

Streaked Scrub Warbler

Violet-backed Starling 

Violet-backed Starling

Yemen Linnet

Yemen Serin 

Yemen Serin

Raydah Escarpment – Bird records by Khalifah Al Dhaheri

Khalifah Al Dhaheri sent me details of his trip last weekend to the Abha area. He managed to see most of the species he was keen to locate and took some great photographs of many of the birds seen. He has very kindly allowed me to use some of his photos from his flickr account which is here and has many more excellent photos on. The Raydah Escarpment is the premier birding site near Abha and is a Saudi Wildlife Authority protected reserve with a very steep road going from the guards point at the top to a village at the bottom. It is one of the best places in the Kingdom for see Arabian Partridge and Khalifa saw the following species there: Two Philby's Partridges a species not seen in the location for a few years, three Arabian Partridges, two African Gray Hornbills, Brown-necked Raven, five Fan-tailed Ravens, Crested Lark, African Stonechat, two Blackstarts, three Arabian Wheatears and five Red-breasted Wheatears.

Philby's Partridge

Philby's Partridge

African Stonechat

Plenty of Arabian Endemics at Al Mehfar Park – Tanoumah

During the weekend of 11-12 July, Phil Roberts and I went to the southwest of Saudi Arabia for a birding trip. This was a very busy and long weekend with little sleep as we were birding on foot all day and then looking for owls and nightjars all night. We birded the Al Mehfar Park area and I have already posted details of some of the bird we saw but we had a brilliant time at this new site. We spent the entire day there on the first day and most of the morning the second day and saw plenty of good birds including eight of the twelve Arabian Endemics that occur in Saudi Arabia including: Philby’s Partridge Alectoris philbyi, Arabian Scops Owl Otus pamelae, Arabian Woodpecker Dendrocopos dorae, Yemen Warbler Sylvia buryi, Yemen Thrush Turdus menachensis, Arabian Wheatear Oenanthe lugentoides, Yemen Serin Serinus menachensis & Yemen Linnet Carduelis yemenensis. The ones we failed to see were: Arabian Partridge Alectoris melanocephala, Arabian Waxbill Estrilda rubibarba, Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak Rhynchostruthus percivali & Arabian Serin Serinus rothschildi. We arrived at about 03:00 hrs and immediately started looking for Owls without success although located two Montane Nightjars on the road and in flight. As it started getting light we went to the more bare area of the site with large boulders in the hope of seeing Philby’s Partridge an Arabian endemic Phil had not previously see. We heard birds calling briefly but despite extensive searching failed to locate any. We did, however, see four Arabian Magpie Pica pica asirensis an endemic subspecies of Eurasian Magpie sometimes treated as a separate species and with population in danger of extinction with probably less than 500 birds left? Soon after this we found Yemen Warbler in the trees along with a drumming male Arabian Woodpecker, a species we would see three more of during our birding here. The most common species seen were Yemen Serin, a species we had previously not seen before, and Palestine Sunbird with over 100 of each seen. Gambaga Flycatcher was also common as was Yemen Linnet. A few Arabian Wheatears were located along the road along with Red-breasted Wheatears and Long-billed Pipits were also seen in this area in good numbers. Other interesting species seen included Violet-backed Starlings, Abyssinian White-eyes, Common Kestrel, Fan-tailed Ravens and a Barbary Falcon, another new species for me in Saudi Arabia. Two Dusky Turtle Doves were in the wooded areas but little else was seen here. In the late afternoon we returned to look for Philby’s Partridge and saw three birds on the cliff edge. We then located and photographed Arabian Scops Owl in the nighttime (see previous post) and the next morning we returned and saw four more Philby’s Partridges a little further along the cliff top although they remained at distance. All in all we had a great time here and I will certainly be returning to this area again, as it the best birding site in the area that I know off.

Arabian Magpie

Philby's Partridge

Yemen Warbler

Yemen Serin

Yemen Linnet - male

Palestinian Sunbird

Palestinian Sunbird

Violet-backed Starling

Common Kestrel

Abyssinian White-eye

Gambaga Flycatcher

Long-billed Pipit