Bani Malik

On Friday afternoon, Lou Regenmorter, Mansur Al Fahad and I ascended the foothills east of Sabya and birded an area known as Bani Malik and at an altitude of 750 metres.

This wasn't an upland weekend but even climbing up to the relatively modest height of 750 metres had a significant effect on the mix of bird species seen.

Female African grey hornbill

Many Afro-tropical species prefer higher elevations than sea level. For example African grey hornbill is much more common at 500 metres than 100 metres. Indeed at our main birding stop up the foothills it was easily seen on several occasions.

The bird above is female as told by the red bill colour. Males have a black bill.

Bruce's green pigeon

Some of the trees at our main stop, a verdant wadi, were fruiting and had attracted a number of Bruce's green pigeon. I had only seen one before (in August last year south of Baha). This time I managed long views without too much trouble.

Red-eyed dove

Red eyed dove was present in the same area. Both these birds ignore the plain for the foothills.

Little swift and red-rumped swallow hawked the skies.

Abyssinian white eye

Two more examples of Afro-tropical birds found at this height but not much lower were Abyssinian white-eye and shining sunbird. Nile valley sunbird is the lowest elevation sunbird but there is extensive range overlap including where we birded.

shining sunbird

Two birds we failed to see on our weekend in the south west were Klaas cuckoo and Dideric's cuckoo. The former is mapped as being in Saudi Arabia in the main regional guide whereas the latter is not. However it has been reported here and indeed seen previously by Mansur Al Fahad.

Research shows that Klaas cuckoo has a strong preference for being parasitical on sunbirds of shining sunbird size (whereas a nile valley sunbird is considerably smaller).  This connection was part of the reason I was so keen to go up the foothills.

griffon vulture

My hunch is that Klaas cuckoo is best found in areas where the density of shining sunbird is highest. This theory will have to wait for a future visit to the south west.

We spent a brief amount of time going even further up the hill side before time ran out.

One of the last views before we had to return down and end our birding for the weekend was a soaring griffon vulture.

Below is the full list of 88 birds I saw over the weekend. All seven additions to my Saudi list (S) were also lifers (L).

Two other species: helmeted guineafowl and European reed warbler were seen by other team members but not by me.

Little grebe	Laughing dove
Greater flamingo	Namaqua dove
Abdim’s stork   S,L	White browed coucal
Glossy ibis	Pied cuckoo     S,L
Eurasian spoonbill	Nubian nightjar   S,L
Cattle egret	African palm swift
Squacco heron	Little swift
Grey heron	Abyssinian roller
Purple heron	Hoopoe
Reef heron	Grey headed kingfisher
Pink backed pelican	White throated bee-eater  S,L
Osprey	Little green bee-eater
Black kite (yellow billed)	African grey hornbill
Griffon vulture	Asian grey shrike
Gabar goshawk S,L	Arabian babbler
Moorhen	House crow
Coot	Fan tailed raven
Oystercatcher	Yellow vented bulbul
Crab plover	Black crowned sparrowlark
Black winged stilt	Crested lark
Greater painted snipe  S,L	Desert lark
Spur winged lapwing	Pale crag martin
Common ringed plover	Red rumped swallow
Kentish plover	Barn swallow
Lesser sand plover	Zitting cisticola
Black tailed godwit	Graceful prinia
Curlew	Sedge warbler
Redshank	Willow warbler
Little stint	Barred warbler
Dunlin	Blackcap
Ruff	Arabian warbler
Sooty gull	Abyssinian white eye
Black headed gull	Common myna
Lesser black backed gull (Baltic)	Violet backed starling
Caspian tern	Rufous bush robin
Gull billed tern	Black bush robin
White winged black tern	Blackstart
Whiskered tern	Nile valley sunbird
Swift tern	Shining sunbird
Chestnut bellied sandgrouse	House sparrow
Lichtenstein’s sandgrouse  S,L	Arabian golden sparrow
Rock dove	Ruepells weaver
African collared dove	African silverbill
Red eyed dove	Arabian waxbill
	Yellow wagtail