Streaked Scrub Warbler at Wadi Thee Ghazal - Taif

Whilst birding at Wadi Thee Ghazal near Taif I saw and photographed a Streaked Scrub Warbler that looked different to Scrub Warblers that I saw in southwest Saudi Arabia near Abha previously. As a result I looked into what subspecies occurs in the region. Geographical variation is marked between some subspecies mainly involving the body ground-colour and the amount and size of streaking on the head and chest. Nominate inquieta Egypt, Israel and northrn Arabia has pale sandy-brown upperparts with the forehead and crown with sharp black-brown shaft-streaks 0·5–1 mm wide, extending as faint dull brown streaking onto the mantle. The supercilium is a similar in colour to the ground-colour of the upperparts and does not contrast much. S. i. theresae from south-west Morocco, western Sahara and Mauritania is very dark, quite different from nominate inquieta; The upperparts are a cold sooty-brown, slightly tinged rufous when fresh, heavily streaked black on crown and hindneck; front part of supercilium and cheek cinnamon-rufous, contrasting markedly with black loral stripe and grey rear of head; chin to chest cream-white, rather heavily streaked greyish-black, remainder of underparts contrastingly deep pink-brown. grisea from western Saudi Arabia, eastern Yemen and Oman that has also been noted from the Mecca and Jeddah areas of Saudi Arabia are dark, near theresae, but the upperparts are more grey-brown and streaks on the crown and chin to chest are slightly less heavy. They are, however, far more heavily streaked than nominate inquieta. The bill of this and other eastern races are heavier than in theresae and saharae. S. i. buryi from south-west Saudi Arabia and western Yemen are even darker and more heavily streaked than theserae with the upperparts dark sooty-brown, flank and belly rufous-cinnamon or red-brown. As a result it appears the birds I saw were similar to grisea due to less heavy streaking on the head and breast and slightly less dark colour compared to buryi.

Satellite Tagged Lesser Spotted Eagle in Saudi Arabia in 2010 – Details Bernd-U Meyberg

Proof that Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina has occurred in Saudi Arabia came from a second calendar year bird fitted with a GPS-PTT (94739) in July 2009 by Bernd-U Meyberg. The bird wintered in Tanzania and migrated to Ukraine in spring 2010 via the Caucasus mountains east of the Black Sea. In autumn it migrated south on almost the same route and passed through eastern Syria into Saudi Arabia 28 September 2010 at 12:00 hrs GMT and was last recorded in Saudi Arabia 5 October at 08:00 hrs GMT. One hour later at 09:00 hrs GMT 5 October the bird was in Yemen and on 9 October 2010 at 09:00 hrs GMT it crossed the Bab-el-Mandeb into Africa see map below. This is the first record of a satellite tracked Lesser Spotted Eagle using this route, although it is a well-known route of Steppe Eagles and follows the eastern coast of the Red Sea to Bab-el-Mandeb and confirms the Lesser Spotted Eagles occurrence in Saudi Arabia. The details were supplied by Bernd and I am very grateful to him for them as well as the route the bird took,

Euphorbia ammak - Taif

Euphorbia ammak grows in Yemen and Saudi Arabia in an altitude range covering 1000 to 2000 and possibly as high as 2500 metres above sea level. It grows in rockier areas in planes and on steep hillsides and thorny bush-lands where it has now become scarce, particularly in Saudi Arabia and South Yemen, although it remains common in places in North Yemen. Euphorbia ammak is a striking Euphorbia of massive stature that is a large, tree-like Euphorbia growing up to 10 metres tall with a short trunk and is superficially similar to some new world Cacti. They have stout stems about 10-15 centimeters wide with branches starting at about 60 centimeters that arch upwards that have thick ribs that are undulate and are usually four-winged. They are covered with spines about one centimeter long. They occasionally produce leaves near the top of each branch as well as yellow-green flowers. These large examples were part of what we have called the Euphorbia Forest near Taif where hundreds of Euphorbias grow n the steep hillsides with a number being very large tree like examples and others just single stands. This plant is a favourite for Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak with this area looking particularly good for the species.

Looking for Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak – Haraar

Last Friday Phil Roberts and I went to the Taif area of Saudi Arabia in the hope of locating Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak, the last remaining unseen Arabian regional endemic for us both in Saudi Arabia. Lou Regenmorter had seen birds in this area last year and Brian James had seen them in the same area a few years earlier. This thus sounded like a prime site for seeing the species so we arrived at the location about 120 kilometres out of Taif on the way to Bahah just before first light. Unfortunately the weather was against us and there was low cloud, and strong wind making birding decidedly difficult. We spent the whole day at the loactio walking up and down the mountains and around the tracks and roads looking intently for the target species as well as anything else we may see. After the entire day in the field we had only seen 16 species of bird but did locate a few good ones but not the Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak. The best birds we saw were a group of eight Philby’s Partridges, one of the twelve regional endemics with plenty of Arabian Wheatears and Yemen Linnets two more regional endemics.. Other birds seen included plenty of Palestine Snbirds, several Brown Woodland Warblers, Common Kestrel, Abyssinian White-eyes and Tristram’s Starlings. Other species seen included House Sparrows, Song Thrushes, Laughing Doves and White-spectacled Bulbuls, Scrub Warblers.

Palestine Sunbird

Abyssinian White-eye

Common Kestrel

Second calendar year fulvescens Greater Spotted Eagle – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Whilst ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl I found a warm coloured eagle at first light that I flushed from a reedy area, that I first thought may have been an Eastern imperial Eagle. This was on brief views flying away when I had no binoculars as I was setting the ringing nets. Later in the day I saw what I assume was the same bird again in flight and managed to get a few photos of it before it drifted off. These views and the photos suggested the bird was a spotted eagle and probably a Greater Spotted but the warm colour and the double comma on the underwing, wing-length and six fingers instead of 7 lead to thoughts of a possible Lesser Spotted Eagle. Lesser Spotted Eagle is a very rare bird in Saudi Arabia and when looking at my photos it became apparent that the wing was in moult accounting for why the hand lacked seven fingers. The moult suggests the bird is a second calendar year with the outer primaries juvenile and the inner four or so replaced feathers, or possibly a third calendar year bird. I was fairly convinced of the identification of this bird as a possible fulvescens Greater Spotted Eagle but sent a few photos to other birders for advice and help all of who agreed with the identification as an older juvenile Greater Spotted Eagle. Andrea Corso who is extremely generous with his help to me mentioned the following “A very hard bird indeed...for the gape line length, which really seems to overpass the eye, it really seems to be a Tawny Eagle, but there is no pale window on inner primaries at ALL!!!  and this is usually a diagnostic character pro rapax, also there is no barring visible at all on the remiges so I would favour an older immature (2-3 calendar year) Aquila clanga fulvescens for these reasons !!!”

Interaction between Asian Desert Warbler & Desert Wheatear – Hanidh

It is common knowledge that interactions happen between various types of Wheatear and Asian Desert Warblers, with the most common being with Isabelline Wheatears. The birds follow each other around the same habit never straying too far from each other. This was the case at a large pivot irrigation field near Hanidh. We have stopped at this field a few times in the past and it has always proved good for birds and have met the farmer to allow us permission to enter. When walking towards the main green area of the field we crossed some scrubby areas that had both Desert Wheatear and Isabelline Wheatear in them when Phil located an Asian Desert Warbler. The bird seemed to be actively feeding close to the wheatears and moved around with the Desert Wheatears for some time. Also in this area were about six Stonechats and in the pivot field were around 50 Eurasian Skylarks. A smaller bird with a different call kept us busy for some time but we never managed to locate the bird on the ground although saw it briefly in flight on two occasions. There was a possibility it may have been a Small Skylark but unfortunately we did not get enough on the bird for positive identification.

Desert Wheatear - male

Desert Wheatear - male

Asian Desert Warbler

Isabelline Wheatear

Unidentified Wildlife

Below are a few photographs of some unidentified wildlife that I have seen or been sent photos of by various people. If anyone has any idea about the identification of any of the photographs could they please let me now by either leaving a message or contacting me through the contact me tab at the top of the page. It would be great if I could put a name to some of these animals and any help would be very welcome. The grasshopper was taken in the Asir Mountains near Abha in southwest Saudi Arabia at the bottom of the Raydah Escarpment in July. The other three were taken near Tabuk in the desert in September and were sent to me by Viv Wilson who has kindly allowed me to use them on my website. We are guessing the spider is some sort of Orb Spider?

Some interesting bird near Zulfi – Bird records by Mansur Al Fahad

Mansur Al Fahad has just sent me some amazing photos of a few birds he saw around Zulfi in the north of the Kingdom during September and early October (Hajj holiday) 2014. Masur has kindly allowed me to use the photos on my website which are reproduced below. The Eurasian Turtle Dove was seen at some Farms just north of Zulfi with the Spotted Crake seen about 60 kilomentres northeast of Zulfi in Al Haski Vale where Acacia trees were present. The Steppe Buzzard was at Al Thweer Road about 35 kilometres northwest of Zulfi with the Menetries’s Warbler in an Acacia tree just south of Zulfi.

Spotted Crake

Eurasian Turtle Dove

Steppe Buzzard

Steppe Buzzard - Dark Phase

Menetries's Warbler

Eurasian Hoopoe Tabuk – Bird records by Viv Wilson

Viv was out birding his local area of Tabuk last weekend and sent me a number of photos including the below ones of a Eurasian Hoopoe. This is one of the most popular bird species in Saudi Arabia, if my correspondence with viewers is anything to go by.  Luckily they are a common bird throughout the country with many being resident and some even breeding, particularly in the southwest highlands and the Eastern Province. Viv has kindly allowed me permission t use his photos below which remain his copyright.

Mangrove White-eye sp Either Mangroves – Bird records by Lou Regenmorter

An unidentified ‘mangrove white-eye’ species occurs along the Red Sea Coast of southwest Saudi Arabia (Newton 2006) but very few records of the birds have been published. The birds were found during a survey of southern Red Sea mangrove stands in 1994 when white-eyes were discovered between the villages of Shuqaiq and Amq, approximately midway between Jizan and al Qunfudah. This represented a range of approaching 100 kilometres, though it was thought it may have extend further to the north given the abundant mangrove stands, although subsequent surveys of these areas failed to locate any birds. The birds choice of habitat as well as smaller size, confirmed by biometrics, and brighter plumaged compared to the nearby montane populations of Abyssinian white-eye Zosterops abyssinicus arabs led to the suggestion that DNA evidence may be necessary to unravel the bird's identity and until this is done the birds should remain unidentified and were best treated as 'mangrove white-eye sp' (Newton 2006). A comment in Porter & Aspinall (2010) under Abyssinian White-eye states a population of white-eyes present in the mangroves on the southern Red sea coast of Saudi Arabia and Yemen remains unidentified. In Jennings (2010), however, there was no mention of the birds in the mangroves of the Red Sea coast possibly as they have not been positively identified and despite extensive searching no further data has been located on these birds and no other documented records have been found. In Oman, Oriental White-eyes were found in 1999 on the small offshore mangrove island of Mahawt where they used similar habitat and occurred only in the canopy of mature mangroves similar to the behavior of the ‘mangrove white-eyes’ in Saudi Arabia. They do not, however, appear to be this species as they have obvious differences in plumage and bill colour. The Saudi Arabian birds resemble Abyssinian White-eye but one obvious difference is that the amount of white around the eye is much larger on the ‘mangrove white-eye’ than on Abyssinian White-eye form the Asir highlands taken at the same time of year - see photo below. On 2 July 2013 whilst birding Either Mangroves (17.16375N, 42.40585E), I saw two ‘mangrove white-eyes’ feeding in the top of mature mangrove trees at the water edge. They kept high in the treetops although dropped down slightly in response to ‘pishing’ but moved off quickly. They were very mobile and although they did not give very good views a photograph was taken of one bird by Phil Roberts. The location of Either Mangroves is approximately 75 kilometres south, as the crow flies, of the southernmost location noted by Newton, almost doubling their known range and extending it to over 175 kilometres of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast. This sighting was the first for almost twenty years and the lack of records is interesting as a number of birdwatchers have been to the mangroves near Shuqaiq in recent years to look for Collared Kingfisher Todirhamphus chloris with no sightings of the White-eyes and Brian Meadows told me that he never saw or trapped any in the mangroves at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia during the ten years he was present, 1984-1994, possibly because all the trees were either stunted or young rather than mature. This is another possible new Arabian Endemic species but work needs to be carried out to ascertain if this is the case or not. Lou Regenmorter went to the same site as the one where we had seen the White-eyes in the hope of locating the birds again and was successful in seeing six birds in the same area. Lou managed to take a couple of digiscoped images of the birds before they moved off. Lou’s photos show more details than the one Phil took and it appears they are not the same as the Oriental White-eyes from Oman and differ from Abyssinian White-eye of the Saudi Arabian Mountains, with two photos shown below taken by me in Tanoumah, Asir Mountians in April 2014 and another in July 2013 at the Raydah Escarpment, Abha, Asir Mountains.

Mangrove White-eye sp

Mangrove White-eye sp

Abyssinian White-eye