Whilst
ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl 27 March 2015 we trapped and ringed a Common
Grasshopper Warbler a species that is a rare passage migrant to the Eastern
Province of Saudi Arabia where they occur on passage from early March to April
and again in September. Common Grasshopper Warbler was not mentioned by Symens
& Suhaibani 1996 in their list of birds seen at this location and appears
to be a first record for the site. The subspecies we trapped was one of the western
races, either nominate Locustella naevia naevia or Locustella
naevia obscurior due to the wing length of 64 with eastern birds having
wing lengths of less than 60. It was also a very well marked bird with plenty
of obvious streaks down the flank making it superficially look a little like a
Lanceolate Warbler. Common Grasshopper Warbler Locustella naevia naevia
breeds in Europe from southern Scandinavia and southern Finland south to
Britain and Ireland, northwest Iberia, east to western European Russia and
Ukraine and winters in west Africa whilst Locustella naevia obscurior
breeds Caucasus mountains south to northeast Turkey and Armenia with
non-breeding birds moving to northeast Africa. These birds have a darker colour
than eastern birds that have a distinctly paler and more olive-grey
ground-colour with L. n. obscurior differing from nominate naevia
by being slightly more olive with heavier, blacker, and more contrasting spots
on upperparts; feather-fringes more olive, less brown, sandy-grey rather than
olive-brown when worn; flank more tinged rusty-cream. Birds are difficult to
positively assign to race due to individual variation. This is only the third
time I have seen the
species in Saudi Arabia with the first a bird on my local patch at Dhahran on 1
April 2012 and the second one in a pivot
irrigation field near Nayriyyah 14 March 2013.
