Far end of Wadi Talea

I blogged yesterday about what Bernard Bracken and I saw near Al Shat village in the highland Wadi Talea near Abha. 

We also walked up the wadi away from the village. 

When you do this, the base of the wadi turns sharp left at one stage but instead of following the base we crossed some terraced fields in a direct line to make a short cut.

This blog is about the crossing of the fields and the lush base of the wadi at the far end of our walk before we doubled back.


The area at the far end is truly lush with many fig and other fruiting trees.

female African paradise flycatcher

It was here that we spotted a female African paradise flycatcher.

another view of African paradise flycatcher

Having lost sight of it twice, it finally gave us good and prolonged views. This was only the second time I had seen this bird in Saudi Arabia. My last view of one anywhere in the world was seen climbing up my hotel wall in Adama, Ethiopia!

Bruce's green pigeon

The fruit and fig trees were a magnet for Bruce's green pigeon. 

four Bruce's green pigeon

In near-by bushes brown woodland warbler was common.

Brown woodland warbler

The main regional guide says that Arabian warbler is found up to 1500 metres. However we saw a pair here at over 2500 metres. Indeed the comments on altitude for several species in the guide underestimate how high they are found including the African paradise flycatcher.

Arabian warbler

The Arabian warbler up at this altitude is almost certainly summer-only undergoing seasonal movements up and down the Asir mountains.

second view of Arabian warbler

Palestine sunbird is unusual in that we found more of them at this high altitude in winter. We presume it is because they follow flowering plants and one particular plant was flowering in large numbers up there in February. It's certainly a hardy bird.

Palestine sunbird

In contrast plenty more Rueppell's weaver were present this time.

Ruepells weaver

The other main habitat visited in this part of the walk was stony open terraced fields with a few bushes. I had hoped to find Blanford's lark here to add to my Saudi list but didn't get a positive identification. As you can see from the picture of the crested lark, larks are well camouflaged in this type of terrain.

crested lark

The wires and sporadic bushes gave more dividends. On one wire, I saw a red-breasted wheatear for the one and only time I have seen this species in Wadi Talea.

Red breasted wheatear

Cinnamon breasted bunting was very common even though none were observed on our winter visit.

Cinnamon breasted bunting

Both red-backed shrike and lesser grey shrike were spotted here. Both are passage birds.

Lesser grey shrike

Only one species of bird of prey was seen all day. This was kestrel. In winter there are eagles.

Kestrel

On Saturday, Bernard and I visited the Raydah escarpment where some difficult birds were observed and I added a new bird to my Saudi list. The next blog will report on this.

43 species seen in Wadi Talea

Arabian partridge	Abyssinian white eye
Kestrel	Violet backed starling
Feral pigeon	Tristram’s starling
Bruce’s green pigeon	Yemen thrush
Dusky turtle dove	White throated robin
Laughing dove	Whinchat
Hoopoe	Red breasted wheatear
Red backed shrike	Arabian wheatear
Lesser grey shrike	Little rock thrush
African paradise flycatcher	Spotted flycatcher
Arabian babbler	Gambaga flycatcher
Fan tailed raven	Palestine sunbird
White spectacled bulbul	House sparrow
Crested lark	Rueppells weaver
Pale crag martin	African silverbill
Red rumped swallow	Yellow wagtail
Graceful prinia	Long billed pipit
Brown woodland warbler	Tree pipit
Willow warbler	Yemen linnet
Blackcap	Cinnamon breasted bunting
Arabian warbler	Striolated bunting
Common whitethroat

The warblers at al Baha

The valley I birded at Baha over the last weekend was teeming with warblers at least in the middle section in the cultivated areas. However these were mostly passage and wintering birds. For resident warblers I found that the upper part of the valley around 2000 metres was the better place.  

scrub warbler

I followed a pair of warblers around from bush to bush over stony outcrops before realising they were the resident scrub warbler.  I have seen this bird in Jordan and Libya before. I have now seen two sub species: inquieta in both Libya and Jordan (despite the Collins guide telling me saharae is the Libyan sub species)  and now buryi in Saudi Arabia. Buryi is even deeper coloured underneath than inquieta.

brown woodland warbler

Also up in the top valley was brown woodland warbler. I saw two in different places on separate occasions. I was helped by the fact it is an extremely loud bird for one so small. This Afro-tropical bird was yet another lifer for me.

The other main resident warbler is graceful prinia. This is not as common here as in my local patch near Riyadh and I never got a chance to take a picture. It is not found in the upper valley but was in the bushes near the cultivated areas in the middle valley.

It was in what I call the middle valley (around 1700 metres) where I saw the majority of the warblers. The place was teeming with chiffchaff. Many of them were eating seeds as well as insects. They seemed to be in a major drive to fatten themselves up presumably because they were just about to migrate. Indeed some were oblivious to my close contact because they were concentrating on eating.

chiffchaff

One chiffchaff stayed in the open jumping from plant to plant for over 8 minutes. In the end I left him rather than the other way round. He is pictured above and in two pictures below.

second view of chiffchaff

He looked like a typical European chiffchaff however other ones were greyer and less colourful and presumably represented birds from further east.

third view of chiffchaff

There were also a smaller number of willow warbler which presumably are part way through their migration since they winter further south than chiffchaff. However, I cant be absolutely sure whether any winter in Baha because I wasn't there earlier.

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willow warbler

The above bird look like a willow warbler.  It has a lighter bill than the chiffchaff, a broader supercilium and doesn't have a dark cheek. Furthermore its legs are a little paler though I think its an eastern sub species because the legs aren't pink.

Looking forward to the south west

All being well I'll be making a short weekend trip to the south west of Saudi Arabia sometime in January.  The trip will probably be to Najran with prospects of going towards Abha.


Hopefully this will be the first of many trips to this area.

brown woodland warbler

This part of Saudi Arabia has more in common with East African birding than with Western Paleartic (Eurasian). There are tens of Afro-tropical species such as the brown woodland warbler. This one was photographed by Abdullah Amrou in August near Abha.

a second brown woodland warbler

There are also eleven endemics to South West Arabia and Yemen.

Ruppells weaver nests near Abha

Most be not all of the endemics are only found at high altitude. Najran is at 1200 metres but the city of Abha is at 2200 metres. The endemics are most usually looked for in the Abha region where peaks reach 3000 metres. However there are highlands close to Najran.

Yemen linnet

One of the endemics, the Yemen linnet was also photographed by Abdullah Amrou in August. I have seen it (and photographed it near Taif, a long way north of both Abha and Najran).

I am not sure if anyone has birded the Najran area before! Foreign birders always seem to make a bee-line to Abha. I am excited to find out what we will see.

fan tailed raven near Abha

I am again grateful to Abdullah Amrou for letting me show some of his pictures.