Whilst birding the Abu Arish area in July I came across a small group of Helmeted Guineafowl Numida Meleagris. They were calling softly to each other with a very unusual call and I managed to get a single photo. After looking for them for quite a while I returned to the car and saw them again in the same place getting a couple of better photographs. The species is very rare in Saudi Arabia only occurring near Malaki Dam Lake in southwest Saudi Arabia. They occur in south-west Arabia including south-west Saudi Arabia. The Handbook of Birds of the World states N. m. mitratus (Pallas, 1764) – Tufted Guineafowl – W & E Tanzania S to E Mozambique, and W through Zambia and Zimbabwe to NE; generally this race is assumed to have been introduced to extreme south-west Saudi Arabia.
