Whilst birding the area just north of Jizan on 7-8
July 2017 I saw at least six Harlequin Quail Coturnix delegorguei with
many other birds calling. This species had not been recorded in Saudi Arabia
for many years, until I found some in the same area in 2015. On the 6 July Phil
Roberts and I flushed a male and female bird and got very good flight views as they
flew a long distance across a field. We were there at around midday when it was
very hot and no calling birds were heard. The next day we went back first thing
in the morning to see if birds were calling and heard a minimum of ten calling
birds out of which we managed to see six including five males and a female.
They would run very quickly from one area of cover to another but luckily one
male ran, stopped in a slightly open area, called a couple of times, and ran
off again. This brief stop to call allowed me to get a couple of photographs of
it that are shown below. As far as I am aware, these are the first photographs
of the species ever taken in Saudi Arabia. This is even more important as the race
that occurs in southwest Saudi Arabia is C. d. Arabica and only occurs
in SW Saudi Arabia and Yemen and the records are outside the migration season
for this species. This subspecies is slightly paler than other races but is thought
by some to possibly not be a valid subspecies, although is recorded as one by
the IOC and in the Handbook of Birds of the World (HBW). HBW states, however,
“race arabica, only slightly paler than others, possibly not valid, as
most records in its range considered probably migrants from Africa; further
study needed”. The male has a very distinctive head pattern being a combination
of black-and-white, black breast and chestnut flanks with the female being
similar to Common Quail although the size of the birds is slightly smaller.
They favour open grassland with scattered bush cover and cultivated areas and
have apparently been recorded in all months in southwest Saudi Arabia, mainly
in the late 1900’s, where they are assumed to be resident.
