As mentioned in a previous post,
Phil Roberts and I went to the Taif area in the mountains in western Saudi
Arabia to look for Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak. This was the last regional
endemic species for us both o see in the country and as it had been seen in the
area a few times in the last couple of years including in November 2014 we
thought we would have a look. We were unsuccessful at the location where they
had been seen most recently possibly due to the inclement weather of strong
winds and low cloud cover and also failed to see them at Wadi Thee Ghazal where
a bird had been photographed by a camera trap set for Arabian Leopard in 2012.
Lou Regenmorter had mentioned to me that he had found a Euphorbia Forest near
to Taif with mature Euphorbia’s so we went to look here. We found the site that
had a hillside with many mature Euphorbia’s, a tree especially liked by Arabian
Golden-winged Grosbeak. The trouble was the trees were growing up a steep
hillside and this meant we had to climb up the hillside to get good views of a
wider range of the trees. A look from the raod could not locate any birds so we
moved up the hill when Phil saw a bird near the ground below a Euphorbia. I
then saw a second bird nearby but the distance was too far for photography and
soon the birds flew off. The species in unmistakable and the golden patches in
the wing very clear, but the views were brief and distant. Despite a long
search of the area we could not relocate the birds meaning we have already set
up another trip to the area to look again in the summer of 2015. One good point
is this is a new location for the species so it looks like they cover a wide
area around Taif, although are scarce and difficult to see. We worked very hard
in the field from dawn to dusk with only a brief view of the birds as a reward
but at least we did finally see the species in the Kingdom. Birds in nearby
Oman appear relatively easy to photograph when seen and Lou got a few photos of
the ones he saw in Saudi Arabia last year so we are hoping on the next trip we
will have better weather and are able to get a few photos. We also saw a few
other good birds including the regional endemic Yemen Serin and Yemen Linnet.
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| Tristram's Starling |
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| Tristram's Starling |
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| Desert Lark |
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| Yemen Serin |