Whilst birding at Wadi Thee Ghazal near Taif I saw and photographed a Streaked Scrub Warbler that looked different to Scrub Warblers that I saw in southwest Saudi
Arabia near Abha previously. As a result I looked into what subspecies occurs
in the region. Geographical variation is marked between some subspecies mainly
involving the body ground-colour and the amount and size of streaking on the
head and chest. Nominate inquieta Egypt, Israel and northrn Arabia has pale sandy-brown
upperparts with the forehead and crown with sharp black-brown shaft-streaks
0·5–1 mm wide, extending as faint dull brown streaking onto the mantle. The
supercilium is a similar in colour to the ground-colour of the upperparts and does
not contrast much. S. i. theresae
from south-west Morocco, western Sahara and Mauritania is very dark, quite
different from nominate inquieta; The
upperparts are a cold sooty-brown, slightly tinged rufous when fresh, heavily
streaked black on crown and hindneck; front part of supercilium and cheek
cinnamon-rufous, contrasting markedly with black loral stripe and grey rear of
head; chin to chest cream-white, rather heavily streaked greyish-black,
remainder of underparts contrastingly deep pink-brown. grisea from western Saudi Arabia, eastern Yemen and Oman that has also been noted from the
Mecca and Jeddah areas of Saudi Arabia are dark, near theresae, but the upperparts are more grey-brown and streaks on the
crown and chin to chest are slightly less heavy. They are, however, far more
heavily streaked than nominate inquieta.
The bill of this and other eastern races are heavier than in theresae and saharae. S. i. buryi from
south-west Saudi Arabia and western Yemen are even darker and more heavily
streaked than theserae with the
upperparts dark sooty-brown, flank and belly rufous-cinnamon or red-brown. As a
result it appears the birds I saw were similar to grisea due to less heavy streaking on the head and breast and slightly
less dark colour compared to buryi.
