The Raydah Escarpment is a first class site 15 kilometres from Abha
signposted off the Al Souda road on the Sarawat escarpment and has been
protected to some degree since the 1980’s. The site is a very steep west-facing
slope with crags. The escarpment, approximately nine square kilometres in size,
supports a more or less intact forest of mainly Juniperus excelsa with Olea
europa on the uppermost slopes. Here the cloud woodland has many juniper
trees draped with lichens and is one of the most densly wooded mountainsides in
Saudi Arabia. Lush more deciduous vegetation occurs on the lower slopes. In the foothills below 1,500 m vegetation
becomes much more Afrotropical with numerous Ficus trees and genera such
as Commiphora, Aloe, Ceropegia and Caralluma being
well represented. These lusher habitats of the foothills soon give way on the
tihama to arid sandy deserts interspersed with very fertile irrigated fields
where water runoff from the highlands can be controlled or where water is close
to the surface. It is located in the biologically rich Asir Mountains and is
also an Important Bird Area encompassing strata of highland and foothill
habitat from 2800 meters to Wadi Jaw at 1350 meters, including a succession of
vegetation from juniper dominated upper regions, with olive Oleo europaea,
through to the Afrotropical foothills at Wadi Jaw with Ficus trees and
where coffee growing occurs. This reserve also holds several excellent mammal
species including African small-spotted Genet, Caracal, Red Fox, Hamadryas
Baboon and Arabian Wolf. Indian Crested Porcupine and Rock Hyrax can also be
seen here. We saw many good birds here including 13 Arabian Partridges, six Dusky
Turtle Doves, Bruce's Green Pigeon, Dideric Cuckoo, Eurasian Hoopoe, two Grey-headed
Kingfishers, four White-throated Bee-eaters, five Fan Tailed Ravens, five Tristram's
Starlings, Yemen Thrush, Pale Crag Martin, 10 Red-rumped Swallows, two Brown
Woodland Warblers, Yemen Warbler, five Abyssinian White-eyes, Arabian Wheatear,
two Blackstarts, three Little Rock Thrushes, 20 Palestine Sunbird, Shining
Sunbird, two African Silverbills, Arabian Serin, 50 Yemen Linnets and a Cinammon-breasted
Bunting.
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| White-throated Bee-eater |
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| Yemen Thrush |
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| Grey-headed Kingfisher |
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| Dusky Turtle Dove |
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| Cinamon-breasted Bunting |