Jehad AlAmmadi is a
birdwatcher from Bahrain and he occasionally sends me details of birds he has
seen in Bahrain. Recently Jehad sent a number of photographs of birds he has
seen in the last couple of weeks including photos of female Northern Pintail, a
species that has also been seen in the nearby Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia
in recent weeks. Other birds photographed included a female/immature Pallid
Harrier and a couple of Stonechats including what appears to be a European
Stonechat and a Northern Caspian. The latest data on the Stonechat Saxicola
torquatus has found convincing reasons for recognising three species: European
Stonechat S. rubicola, Eastern Stonechat S. Maurus and African Stonechat S.
torqatus. The taxa breeding in the Caspian region, both of which winter in
Saudi Arabia, were revisited and after studying the type description and
various museum specimens it was concluded that the name variegatus should not
be applied to the taxon breeding north of the Caucasus but rather to the
population in eastern Turkey and Transcaucasia presently named armenicus. This
means the former variegatus, northern Caspian population, needed a new name
with hemprichii being the oldest available and valid name for the population.
The paper also called hemprichii (formerly variegatus) North Caspian Taxon
(NCT) and variegatus (formerly armenicus) South Caspian Taxon (SCT). The
northern population NCT has a very characteristic male plumage with white
portions on each side of the outer tail extending to half to three-quarters of
the tail feather length, similar to many Wheatears and Red-backed Shrike. This
can be seen easily when perched birds spread their tail or when birds fly but
on perched birds with tails closed it can often not be seen. NCT also has a
large unstreaked pale rump patch, buffish when fresh becoming white when
abraded. In comparison European Stonechat has a streaked rump with usually
limited white.
