Whilst birding the Asir mountains in May I saw a lot of good birds. This included six endemic bird species including Yemen Thrush, Yemen Warbler, Arabian Wheatear, Yemen Serin, Arabian Serin and Phiby’s Partridge. I also saw Asir (Arabian) Magpie that is now being considered an endemic species as well. Several other good specialities of the southwest were seen including Shikra, African Pipit, African Stonechat, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting and White-spectacled Bulbul. Violet-backed Starling and Gambaga Flycatcher are summer visitors from Africa and were common and another African summer visitor Grey-headed Kingfisher was seen in a couple of places. Laughing Dove was common and there were also plenty of Dusky Turtle Doves a much less common species restricted in range in Saudi Arabia to the southwest.
