Last Friday Nicole and I trapped and
ringed our second Savi’s Warbler of the autumn at Sabkhat Al Fasl. This is
quite a late date for the species in Saudi Arabia where most autumn records
occur in September. Up until recently the status of Savi’s Warbler was thought
to be a rare passage migrant at Sabkhat Al Fasl (Symens & Suhaibani 1996), but
records from the site over 2014 have indicated that it is an uncommon
passage migrant from late February until May and scarce from August to October.
Some birds stay in the same area for a few weeks in spring but there are no
indications of birds breeding. During ringing at the site this year we have
trapped and ringed a single bird in the spring on 18 April between a small reed
patch and the main reedbeds and another two in the autumn on 26 September and
24 October in the main reed beds. The
subspecies of Savi’s Warbler that occurs in the region is Locustella
luscinoides fusca which is more olive brown with paler under-parts and more
obvious white tips to the under-tail coverts than the nominate European form L
l luscinodes making it look slightly different and more like a River
Warbler. L l fusca breeds in Turkey & Jordon eastwards to central
Asia including north and south Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, north-east Iran and
probably north-west Afghanistan. They winter in north-east Africa principally
in Sudan & Ethiopia.
