Desert Lark Ammomanes deserti is a common resident in rocky deserts and outcrops of all areas except the juniper summits of the Hejaz and Asir and probably the sand seas of the Empty Quarter and Nafud Desert.
The best place to see the species close to Dhahran where I live is the Shedgum Escarpment. As we have seen birds here before Phil Roberts and I went to the Judah area, where there are similar escarpments to those at Shedgum but less degraded and much less disturbed. Here we located tens of Desert Larks often in pairs and almost all were of the pale subspecies azizi, which is the palest form of all the subspecies and matches almost perfectly with the limestone rocks and scree of the escarpment.
They prefer arid hills, stony or rocky slopes with sparse vegetation and can often be located by their constant calling. Birds were seen along the entire length of the escarpment and although never common should be located if looked for carefully enough.
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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