Whilst birding the An Namas area north of Abha in the Asir Mountains in the summer I came across a pair of Arabian Warblers. The Arabian Warbler is a locally common breeding resident in bushy areas of the Hejaz and Asir mountains occurring in the eastern desert fringes as well as on the temperate summits.
It has a somewhat narrow habitat preference, of thick acacia scrub in dry locations, notably scrub-covered hillsides, and is not so easy to locate. The Saudi Arabian sub-species is Silvia. I. leucomelaena.
The birds I saw were in exactly the type of habitat mentioned above and performed very well allow some good photographs to be taken.
Jem Babbington
Jem Babbington is a keen birder and amateur photographer located in Dhahran, Eastern Saudi Arabia where he goes birding every day. Jem was born in England and is a serious local patch and local area birder who has been birding for almost forty years and has birded in more than fifty countries. Jem is learning to ring birds in Bahrain as a perfect way to learn more about the birds of the area. Saudi Arabia is a very much under-watched and under-recorded country.
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