Between Jizan and Sabya

Just north of Jizan, the same fields that sociable lapwing (see previous blog) were attracted to last Thursday were popular with many other birds.

Indeed it was seeing the other birds from a distance that persuaded Lou Regenmorter and me to visit it.

three Abyssinian roller

The most apparent birds were cattle egret sitting in large numbers on the pivot bar and following a tractor around as it cut down fodder.

cattle egret

Abyssinian roller were perched on a pivot bar. This was the first time I had heard their call and its very crow-like. 

yellow wagtail

The cut grass was absolutely crawling with yellow wagtail. They out numbered the white wagtail by over 5 to 1.

white wagtail

When I visited these fields in late December with Mansur al Fahad we saw a zitting cisticola. I commented at the time that this is a long way north of the range given in The Birds of the Middle East map.

zitting cisticola

This time Lou and I saw half a dozen of them and I managed to get a picture to prove they are nearly 100 kilometres north of the map's distribution.

I have found it is a common feature of the Jizan area that birds which the maps say stop at or just north of the Yemen border are actually distributed well into south west Saudi Arabia.

Namaqua dove

Three types of dove were in the fields: African collared dove, Namaqua dove and laughing dove. The former bird is apparently resident by the coast according to my observations but vacates the highlands in winter. 

whiskered tern

One of the stranger features of the field that was being cut as we watched, was the presence of large numbers of both white winged black tern and whiskered tern. There was no standing water in sight.

unknown lark

In the area, were both crested lark and singing bush lark. Indeed this is the only place where I have seen the latter bird, both in late December and on this trip. 

I don't like posting birds I haven't identified. However I can't identify a mobile flock seen on the edge of the fields. They looked a little like lesser short toed lark by with a more rufous crown and no breast streaking. The general consensus now which I agree with is that they are either Greater short toed lark or Blanford's short toed lark.

second look at unknown lark

If it is Greater short toed lark then it has a more rufous top than usual particularly this far east of their range. However Blanford's short toed lark is normally a highland bird which is known to come down lower in winter. What I don't know is how far down as these fields are almost at sea level.

News flash - update
Since writing this, Brian Small who illustrated Blanford's lark in the Horn of Africa guide  has corresponded and he is confident the bird is (greater) short toed lark and I trust his judgement. Case solved.


In the next blog I'll look at how we got on visiting mangroves further north.

Larger land birds near Jizan

There was so much material for my blog produced when I went to Jizan with Mansur Al Fahad two weekends ago.

Today's blog looks at some of the larger land birds found around Lake Maliki. 

 

Abyssinian roller. Cropped from a photo by Mansur Al Fahad

 Abyssinian roller is a beautiful bird and can usually be easily seen on a wire as in this case. This one was on the main road up Wadi Jizan near Lake Maliki.

African grey hornbill. Cropped from a photo by Mansur Al Fahad 

This time, an African grey hornbill was also seen on a wire (close to the roller) but this is a little less common. I usually see them in trees.

 Arabian babbler

Arabian babbler is common around Lake Maliki and indeed all over Jizan province. Two sub species occur side by side. The majority had a yellow bill but this one had the dark bill like those seen in central Arabia.

White browed coucal

The final featured bird is white browed coucal. This bird was seen in two areas, one place was in the bushes at the side of the Lake. The other was a dry wadi nearer Abu Arish. Unfortunately it evaded good photography. This was a lifer for me and one of ten additions to my Saudi list while in Jizan.

Coastal Jizan province

I didn't actually bird the in-land coastal strip near Jizan but we did travel through it on the way to hills. However, that didn't stop me seeing some useful birds.


I took ten minutes in the fields at a petrol stop and of course there were chances to see birds as we travelled.


One of the best sights were Abyssinian roller on the wires. This was a real reminder that this part of Saudi Arabia is truly in the Afro-tropical eco-zone.

Abyssinian roller

Abyssinian roller are resident birds but I came a little early in the year to see the many African species who breed there in the summer. They migrate over the Red Sea during the next few weeks.

two Abyssinian rollers

One bird which has already turned its mind to breeding is Ruppells weaver. The male one below is gathering reed to weaver.

Ruppells weaver

Little green bee-eater is as numerous as in the Riyadh area but white-throated bee-eater hasn't yet arrived back from Africa. They can particularly be seen near the crop fields along with barn swallow and African palm swift.

little green bee-eater

It's ironic that, as reported in yesterday's blog, I saw black -crowned sparrow lark in the city but only crested lark in the countryside.

crested lark

One obvious feature of the countryside was how many doves there were: namaqua dove, laughing dove and African collared dove. I had failed to see the latter bird in both Narjan and Baha on my last two trips to the south west. Many of them apparently go to Africa for the winter. They are either back or stay the winter in the more tropical Jizan.

kestrel

Finally the only two birds of prey are came across were the ubiquitous black kite and a kestrel on a pivot cross beam.  I have made a mental note to bird this coastal strip more intensively next time.