Whilst birding Jebal Hamrah in early
March I saw a male Eastern Orphean Warbler Sylvia crassirostris in a
small shrub in one of the wide wadies along the bottom of the escarpment near
Judah. This species is a scarce passage migrant to all areas, rather common in
the west but rare in the Gulf, with mostly single birds seen. Birds are most
often recorded in March and April and September to October. Birds of the Riyadh
Region (Stagg 1994) state it is a spring and autumn passage migrant. Passes
from mid-January to early May and again throughout September. Numbers variable
but generally uncommon and seen in ones and twos only. The sub-species S. c.
belchanica passes through the region. Males have a sharply delimited, well-defined
blackish cap and lack the white eye often depicted for the species. The
sighting was a good one for me as I seldom see this species in Saudi Arabia and
only have one poor photo. Unfortunately for me, the one time it came out into
the open the sun was in the wrong direction so my photo was not the best. By
the time I moved to have the sun behind me, the bird had disappeared deep into
a bush and despite waiting for a very long time it did not come out into the
open again. The subspecies we get in Saudi Arabia is Sylvia crassirostris balchanica from SW Caspian Sea region, NE Iraq east to SE Turkmenistan and SE Iran; non breeding in S Iran, S Pakistan and SE Arabia (UAE, Oman). This subspecies has a dark eye.
