Daily Yaffle: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia April 2022

This was a week-long private trip for three of us organised through Bird Tour Asia. All I had to do was book my international flights and a hotel for the first night. Other pre-tour ‘paperwork’ consisted of an online visa, a covid arrival form and the NHS covid pass, all of which were straightforward.

On April 12th, we met up at Heathrow T5 for the afternoon flight on BA although it was delayed by 75 minutes which meant we didn’t arrive in Riyadh until midnight. Unfortunately John and Jane’s luggage was left in London (only retrieved on our penultimate day!) so by the time we'd sorted that out we arrived at our hotel in the early hours and had to be ready to leave by 4am. Our guide, Carlos, picked us up and we headed off into the desert to look for larks. This was the only birding we did up in the north of the country which is mostly stony desert with low bushes.

Our principal target was Arabian Lark, a recent split from Dunn’s Lark which I’d seen in Israel but we couldn’t locate any. There were plenty of Greater Hoopoe-Larks along with Bar-tailed and Crested Larks, and the first of several Turkestan Shrikes of the karolini race.

Greater Hoopoe-Lark

Turkestan Shrike

We only had the first part of the morning here as we had to go back to Riyadh for a domestic flight down to Abha. Despite it being Ramadan we were still able to get lunch at the airport. We had been warned that the fasting was strictly observed so expected food and drink outlets to be closed but this wasn’t always the case. During our stay it was difficult to find restaurants open in the evening so we mostly had to rely on take-aways. We found most of the locals friendly but few spoke English.

A group of friendly Saudis asked for their photo to be taken

We spent five days birding the southwest corner of Arabia including a day on the coast along the Red Sea not far from the Yemen border. This area is unlike the rest of the country in being quite high, above 2000 metres, and often quite green. The weather was sunny and pleasant in the highlands but much hotter along the coast where the temperature soared into the mid-thirties.

Escarpment at Habala Plateau

Acacia desert

abandoned farm in Raidah National Park

Arabian endemics

Our trip was geared to locating the Arabian endemics and we saw most of them, missing just three: Arabian Lark, Golden Sparrow and Grosbeak – the latter two were just not around this year. Others not photographed include Arabian Wheatear and Arabian Sunbird.

Arabian Partridge

Philby's Partridge

Arabian Eagle-Owl

Arabian Scops-Owl

Arabian Woodpecker

Asir Magpie, a recent split from European Magpie

Rufous-capped Lark (also occurs in Somaliland)

Yemen Thrush

Yemen Warbler

Arabian Waxbill

Arabian Serin

Yemen Serin

Yemen Linnet

Middle Eastern birds

With its varied habitats, Saudi Arabia hosts many of the birds found across the Middle East. As well as those photographed below we also saw Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Long-legged Buzzard, Saunder's Tern, Blackstart, White-spectacled Bulbul, Graceful Prinia and Nile Valley Sunbird.

Crab Plover, fairly common on coastal lagoons

Namaqua Dove

Sooty Gull

White-eyed Gull

Palestine Sunbird

Arabian Warbler

African birds

The East African coast is less than 25 miles away across the Red Sea from the SW corner of the Arabian Peninsula at its nearest point so this particular area hosts many African birds and mammals that don’t occur elsewhere in Arabia. Other birds seen but not photographed include Helmeted Guineafowl, Dusky Turtle Dove, African Palm Swift, Goliath Heron, Grey Hornbill and African Paradise-Flycatcher.

African Collared Dove

Hamerkop

Pink-backed Pelican

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Little Rock Thrush

African Stonechat

Violet-backed Starling

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Migrants

The Red Sea is a major migration route for birds that winter in Africa and breed in Europe and Asia including raptors, waders, bee-eaters and many small birds like warblers and flycatchers. We bumped into migrants at most green spaces (one park had four races of Yellow Wagtail) and during our last day on the coast we saw several flocks of Black Kites passing through with the odd Booted Eagle and Marsh Harrier.

Black Stork

Black Kite

Oriental Honey-Buzzard - the tail pattern easily separates this from European H-B

Lesser Sandplovers

Masked Shrike

Black Scrub-Robin

Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin

Red-throated Pipit

Other wildlife

Few mammals were seen apart from large groups of Hamadryas Baboon and feral Camels but when we went out looking for Nubian Nightjar we saw Midas Free-tailed Bats and a Desert Hedgehog.