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.

Tanumah Park

Tanumah Park is positioned along the edge of the main escarpment and has a parking area with picnic tables and some trees and grass. The rocky edge of the escarpment has had Yemen Serin previously but not during our visit. Eurasian Griffon Vulture can be seen flying over these cliffs and we saw four birds in the air together although quite distant.

Gambaga Flycatcher

Tristram's Starling

Yemen Warbler

Long-billed Pipit

Crested Honey-Buzzard & Fan-tailed Raven

The area held plenty of birds including 5+ Tristram’s Starlings, two Gambaga Flycatchers, one Yemen Warbler, two Brown Woodland Warblers, one Abyssinian White-eye, two Violet-backed Starlings, one Yemen Thrush, five White-spectacled Bulbuls, a Common Kestrel and several House Sparrows in the trees and pick-nick area. Ten Red-rumped Swallows and two Pale Crag Martins were flying over. The rocky areas had two Long-billed Pipits and an unusual sight was a 2nd calendar year Crested Honey-Buzzard flying over being mobbed by the plentiful Fan-tailed Ravens. Crested Honey-Buzzard has not been positively identified in this region before although Rob Tovey saw a possible bird last year.

Sallal Al Dahna

Sallal Al Dahna (18 54.393N, 42 12.287E) is about seven kilometres before Tanumah if coming from the Abha direction on Route 15. The best way to find the site is to drive towards Tanumah and once you see the town in front of you take the first U-Turn and then drive up the road for a couple of hundred metres and take the first turn just before the first building on the right. This is a tarmac drive and ends after about five hundred metres in a turning area and below this is the waterfall pool. There is another entrance to the waterfall just before the small bridge but this is hardly marked and looks like no road exits, as it is a dirt track. It may also be too rough for normal cars to pass but you can park although allows easier access to the wadi. The best idea is to park here and walk up the wadi and bird your way up to the waterfall. The site is surprisingly compact but has excellent cover mainly of juniper and acacia and as a result a high density of birds. Tanumah lies about 100km north of Abha and is connected by a fast and good road and has numerous bare rocky hills along an escarpment. 

African Paradise Flycatcher

African Paradise Flycatcher

We visited this site in the morning of 5 July and arrived just after first light. The primary reason for visiting was to try to locate the Asir race of European Magpie which is endemic to this area of Saudi Arabia and may only have 150 pairs left in the wild. Recent records indicate the species range may be contracting but birds were seen here in May 2002 and again in April & May 2013 when a nest was located at the same site. There was no sign of the magpies when we first arrived but after about thirty minutes we heard odd calling and went to investigate. Here we located two birds sitting in a tall tree that were later joined by a third bird. The birds never really allowed close approach and kept moving around across the valley occasionally giving their distinctive calls. Staying on the tarmac road and looking across the valley would probably ensure success in locating the birds if they were present but getting down in the wadi and looking allows for closer views, although views of the entire valley are restricted by the tall trees. We went down into the wadi after initially looking from the top and ended up getting good views. The cover in the wadi does mean you may need to spend some time here searching as this was one of the best covered areas we bird watched on our trip.

Asir Magpie

Asir Magpie

Palestine Sunbird

There were a good number of birds present in this excellent site including three Eurasian Hoopoes, a pair of African Paradise Flycatchers, 5+ Brown-necked Raven, 5+ Fan-tailed Raven, 5+ White-spectacled Bulbuls, two Brown Woodland Warblers, one Abyssinian White-eye, three Arabian Wheatears, one Little Rock Thrush, two Gambaga Flycatchers, one Palestinian Sunbird and a few House Sparrows.

Wadi Muhayil

This is a small site six kilometres west of Muhayil on the main 209 road. Previously it was a well vegetated site with euphorpis and ficus trees and had constant flowing water and subsequently attracted many species. Highlights have included Bruce's Green Pigeon, Hamerkop, Golden winged Grosbeak, White browed Coucal, Grey headed Kingfisher & White-throated Bee-eater. Today the site is less attractive to birds as there is no constant water and some of the tall trees are no longer there. There are plenty of better sites to go to than this and unless it is on the way I would not bother going to this area. We went to the site in the early afternoon of 4 July and saw little of note. There were plenty of doves, mainly Laughing Doves and breeding African Turtle Doves as well as two White-throated Bee-eaters, three Arabian Babblers, one Graceful Prinia, two Black Scrub Robins and ten Violet-backed Starlings.

African Collared Dove

Al Qahma Mangroves

Shuqaiq Mnagroves (17 48.20N, 41 53.20E) is an area of mangroves on the southern Red Sea shore about 20km north of Shuqaiq. It is a shallow bay with large intertidal mudflats and stands of mangrove but little activity was occurring first thing in the morning on the day of our visit 4 July. As a result we travelled further north towards Al Birk on the main road looking for mangroves as we went and when we found any we tried to access the area by driving down any track that you can find to get near to the mangrove areas and then getting out of the car and walking around listening for calls. We eventually found a good area of mangroves just south of Al Qahma (17 57.856N, 41 40.841E). As a result we travelled further north towards Al Birk on the main road looking for mangroves as we went and eventually found a very nice large stand. The mangrove areas are accessed by driving down any track that you can find to get near to them and then getting out of the car and walking around listening for calls.

Collared Kingfisher

Collared Kingfisher

We drove down to the site we found and started looking in the mangroves when a loud series of calls alerted us to the presence of Collared Kingfisher and after a short while we had seen four birds with others calling. These mangroves had more crabs present than I have ever seen and as crabs are the primary food of Collared Kingfisher conditions looked ideal. The birds were seen in flight and occasionally perched in the mangroves themselves but did not allow us close approach. 

Goliath Heron

Greater Sand Plover

Purple Heron

Sooty Gull

Whilst looking for the Collared Kingfishers and scanning the edge of the mangroves we also found a Goliath Heron perched in the mangroves, presumably driven there by the rising tide. Other good birds seen at the site included Sooty Gull, Striated Heron, Crab Plover, Greater Sand Plover, Indian Reef Heron, Purple Heron and African Collared Dove. 

Bani Malik

Bani Malik (17 35.027N, 43 08.171E) is an area near to Jabal Gaha where after leaving the small village of Bani Malik at approximately 1800 metres, the road descends into a valley. This valley and the upper areas of it had previously been mentioned as a good area where some excellent birding had occurred in July 2001. We visited this area on 2 July but birded the lower regions (17 20.90N, 43 09.97E), before the main climb to Bani Malik, at about 810 metres. The road to the village was in very bad shape in July 2013 with large cliff falls and road slips. We found a deep wadi with a road off into it to the right just after a large town. We drove down the track until we found some nice vegetation and then birded the area on foot for a couple of hours. The temperature here was pleasantly cooler than down near the coast at Jizan making birding over the lunchtime period pleasant rather than a chore and as a result we saw a few good birds in the area. On entering the wadi we saw a large group of 50+ Alpine Swifts in the air together and five Red-rumped Swallows and two Little Swifts were also flying around. Although this was a back road with parts of the road missing it was still relatively busy with traffic.
 

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Bruce's Green Pigeon

Bruce's Green Pigeon

Blackstart

African Collared Dove

White-spectacled Bulbul

In the dry area of the wadi were two Blackstarts and an Arabian Warbler and five White-spectacled Bulbuls were in the roadside trees. Shining Sunbird and six Grey-headed Kingfishers was seen in a small side arm of the wadi with a pair of Grey-headed Kingfishers feeding young in a hole in the sand bank by the wadi roadside. Three Bruce’s Green Pigeons were flying about from tall tree to tall tree and an African Collared Dove was also seen along with 10+ Violet-backed Starlings.

Sabya Waste Water Lagoons

In the morning of 2 July we went to the Sabya Waste Water Lagoons east of Sabya (17 10.513N, 42 48.129E). This wastewater facility has seven or eight pools that are all easily worked and the birds are relatively confident as the road is used by trucks to dump the waste water, so the birds are used to traffic. Mike Jennings found a number of Greater Painted Snipe here in July 2010, a new species for Saudi Arabia, and speculated these birds may be breeding here. The birds were seen again in March 2013 by Lou Regenmorter and again in May 2013 by Lou, Rob Tovey and Mansur Al Fahad this time with young, proving breeding for the first time in Arabia. We went to the site to look for the birds but found it relatively difficult as the temperature and humidity were high making it less than pleasant to be outside birding. We failed to find the Greater Painted Snipe on the lagoon where Lou and Rob had seen them but located a pair on a nearby lagoon after a few hours of searching.

Greater Painted Snipe

We also located a few other good birds at this site including 20+ Squacco Herons, one Grey Heron, 20+ Spur-winged Lapwings, 10+ breeding Black-winged Stilts two Green Sandpipers and four Common Sandpipers. Other water birds included 10+ Glossy Ibis and 50+ Western Cattle Egrets that appeared to be breeding in the flooded trees on the site. Five Whiskered Terns were hawking insects over the lagoons that had plenty of Common Moorhen on them and five Green Bee-eaters were perched in the bushes by the side of the lake with 50+ Ruppell’s Weavers. Three African Palm Swifts and three Barn Swallows were seen in the air over the site and other birds seen included five Crested Larks, five White-spectacled Bulbuls, three African Collared Doves, ten Laughing Doves and five Namaqua Doves.

African Palm Swift

Glossy Ibis & Western Cattle Egret

Glossy Ibis

Green Bee-eater

Spur-winged Plover

Western Cattle Egret

Phil’s Fields Sabya

We spent the early afternoon of 2 July birding two very large grassy fields inland from Sabya that Phil located as I was driving along the main Ad Dabi to Sabya road (17 07.58N, 42 41.62E). The fields were on the right hand side of the road going towards Sabya and had large pivot irrigation equipment stored by them. The fields were very green with tall plants growing in them and some quite wide tracks where the pivot irrigation wheels had driven. The area looked excellent for locating Zitting Cisticola, Singing Bushlarks and Arabian Sparrows and as soon as we were out of the car we heard Zitting Cisticola. They took a little time to get views of as they spent most of the time flying high in the sky and diving for cover but eventually a couple were seen perched on grass stems and others close by in flight with more than twenty birds seen in total.

Zitting Cisticola

Arabian Golden Sparrows

A walk across the fields soon produced 10+ Singing Bushlarks flushed from the grass and the small size and bright underwing coverts could clearly be seen. Several birds gave brief songs in flight but most were silent. Two Crested larks were also seen for comparison. As I was walking down one of the tracks in the field I flushed a Small Buttonquail which gave good, but short, flight views and was not seen again (see previous comments on Small Buttonquail under Malaki Dam Lake account). The very small size, flight action and wing pattern gave the species identity away. Later we flushed a dark Quail and got reasonable views of a bird in flight and on the ground that looked like it may well have been Harlequin Quail. Common Quail could not be 100% eliminated but the time of year does not appear right for the migrant Common Quail, although we saw a number of what appeared to be unusually early migrants on this trip, hence no conclusive identity was given to the bird. 

Pied Cuckoo

White-throated Bee-eater

Black Bush Robin

Phil then located a large flock of over 300 Arabian Golden Sparrows that were continually on the move and proved very difficult to photograph until a few flew into a nearby hedge, where they were less mobile. Next to the hedge we found a European Roller on a pivot irrigation water system, presumably a very early migrant and further along the same equipment there was a Pied Cuckoo with another two seen together further along the hedge. These birds are thought to be passage migrants through the area, mainly in May, but the sighting had us wondering if they were breeding in the area. Breeding was later confirmed by Lou Regenmorter when he saw a young Pied Cuckoo in a different location near Abha being fed by a party of Arabian Babblers. Other good birds seen included 15+ White-throated Bee-eaters, two Little Green Bee-eaters and two Black Bush Robins. 50+ Western Cattle Egrets, one Squacco Heron and several Crested Larks also present and four African Palm Swifts were flying about. Five Common Myna, 20+ Ruppell’s Weavers and several House Sparrows were also seen.

Either Mangroves

Either Mangroves are an area of mangroves north-west of the small village of Either. They are not very thick only a few trees wide but extend for several kilometres along the sheltered embayment. The surrounding land is sabkha protected by a bund and the mangroves are behind this bund, so it is worth stopping and looking as you drive along the track. The very start of the mangroves was the best site for waders and herons but further down was where the warblers and white-eyes were found.

Striated Heron

It is possible to walk to the mangroves and water edge in several places, down raised embankments, and this is well worth doing as you get close to the trees and can see some of the smaller birds such as African Reed Warbler and Abyssinian White-eye. There were five Striated Herons along the water edge and the mangroves themselves had two African Collared Doves perched on the mangroves and in flight over them and several passerines were seen flitting around in the mangroves themselves including three African Reed Warblers or Mangrove Warbler as well as two Clamorous Reed Warblers of a different sub-species to the ones we see in the Eastern Province.

African Collared Dove

African Reed Warbler

Striated Heron

Striated Heron

The Abyssinian White-eye is a very interesting bird and it looked very out of place in the mangroves and may eventually turn out to be a different species as its habitat choice; call and biometrics are very different from the normal ones seen at higher elevations. This would be a great species to study in more detail if anyone gets the time and permission to ring at the site as few people have recorded seeing this mangrove dwelling White-eye recently and its status and numbers are poorly known. On the way out of the site, just as you come to the end of the bund we turned right and followed the bund to the sea and saw five Eurasian Spoonbills, 20+ Pink-backed Pelicans, three Crab Plovers, two Common Redshank, one Common Greenshank, three Kentish Plovers, two Indian Reef Herons, two Sooty Gull, 20+ Slender-billed Gulls, six Gull-billed Terns, two Little Terns and a fly over Yellow-billed Kite which was the only one we saw all trip. We failed to locate the recently sighted Goliath Heron here, however. Other interesting birds included six African Palm Swifts, six White-throated Bee-eaters and four Greater Hoopoe-larks.

Yellow-billed Kite

White-throated Bee-eaters