The Handbook of Birds
of the world have just split Arabian Green Bee-eater from Green Bee-eater. Philothrus cyanophrys Cabanis and Heine,
1860, Arabia = mountains of Al Qunfudhah, southwestern Saudi Arabia. Usually
treated as conspecific with M.
viridissimus and M. orientalis,
but differs from both in its very short stub-ended central tail feathers;
bright blue forehead, supercilium and throat, and bluer lower belly; broader,
smudgier black breast-bar; marginally larger size and clearly longer tail
(minus the tail extensions) than the other taxa. Proposed race najdanus (from C Arabian plateau) now
included within muscatensis. Two subspecies
currently recognized. M. c. cyanophrys
from southern Israel, western Jordan and west & south Arabian coasts and M. c. muscatensis from central Arabian
plateau and eastern Arabia (eastern Yemen to Oman and United Arab Emirates).
This makes it another Arabian endemic in their eyes, and in this instance the species is
not difficult to see and can be seen away from the main endemic rich area of
the southwest mountains, although it does not reach as far as the Eastern
Province stopping around the Riyadh area in central Saudi Arabia. I do not use HBW as my list but it will be interesting to see if anyone else adopts their reasoning.
