Birds of Saudi Arabia: Ten species of Arabian Endemic at Al Mehfar Park

04 July 2015

Ten species of Arabian Endemic at Al Mehfar Park – Tanoumah

During the weekend of 19-20 July, Phil Roberts and I went to the southwest of Saudi Arabia for a birding trip. This was a very busy and long weekend with little sleep as we were birding on foot all day and then looking for owls and nightjars all night. We birded the Al Mehfar Park area for most of the day on 20 June and saw plenty of good birds including ten of the thirteen Arabian Endemics that occur in Saudi Arabia including: Philby’s Partridge, Arabian Partridge, Arabian Scops Owl, Arabian Woodpecker, Yemen Warbler, Yemen Thrush, Arabian Wheatear, Yemen Serin, Arabian Serin & Yemen Linnet. The ones we failed to see were: Arabian Waxbill, Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak and Arabian Spotted Eagle Owl. As it started getting light we went to the more bare area of the site with large boulders in the hope of seeing Philby’s Partridge where we located several small groups totaling 16 birds. Other birds seen included; Five Arabian Scops Owls, four Eurasian Hoopoes, five Arabian Woodpeckers, three Fan Tailed Ravens, six Violet-backed Starlings, 15 Tristram's Starlings, five Yemen Thrushs, 10 White-spectacled Bulbul, Crested Lark, two Barn Swallows, two Pale Crag Martins, six Red-rumped Swallow, four Brown Woodland Warblers, six Streaked Scrub Warblers, African Paradise Flycatcher, Arabian Warbler, three Abyssinian White-eyes, four Arabian Wheatears, four Little Rock Thrushes, seven Gambaga Flycatchers, five Palestine Sunbirds, House Sparrow, Long-billed Pipit, three Arabian Serins 35 Yemen Serins, 30 Yemen Linnets and two Cinammon-breasted Buntings.