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.
 |
| Abyssinian White-eye |
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 wh has kindly allowed me to use his photograph on my website. 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. 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. This may prove to be difficult as I am unable to get permission from the Saudi Authorities at present to carry out ringing in the country and this will be required to get DNA of the birds.
