Arabia’s African birds - my true UFOs!

>>Aden: Settlement Gardens
April-May 1946

Life list now 205 species

Arabia is part of Asia and separated from Africa by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Yet that was not always so. These waterways form part of the Great Rift Valley, a huge north-south cut, that stretches from Israel to East Africa. It split Arabia from Africa millions of years ago, and doing so split populations of birds. Some have evolved into distinct species on each side of the divide and others have remained as a single species. Furthermore, the southwest corner of Arabia, where Aden is situated, is far enough south to be affected by monsoon rains and so is a continuation eastward of the Sahel (most of Arabia is a continuation eastward of the Sahara). Thus Aden shares some of the Sahelian species that are found in Africa. I encountered four of these when I visited the Settlement Gardens in Sheikh Othman during afternoons after work on 15 April, 3 and 20 May 1946.  Sheikh Othman lay on the northern edge of Aden colony and I was able to get there by bus from Steamer Point. I had noticed the abundant vegetation (from irrigation) of the Gardens behind a mud wall when going past in the mail truck on the way to the APL (Aden Protectorate Levies) Lines (camp) a mile or two west of the town. The APL was established to provide native guards for the colony and was on its perimeter. The Settlement Gardens became one of my most frequented birding spots. Click here for a satellite view of the modern state of the Gardens. They are now completely surrounded by urban development.

Settlement Gardens, Sheikh Othman (in green)
From 1940s map
Grid squares 1 km each side

The birds I had met with on the salt pans, described previously, were species whose range extended to the north and with which I was already familiar or could identify from books on European or Egyptian birds. However, In the Settlement Gardens were some tropical species for which I had no means of identification and so recorded detailed descriptions. For the first two I had a fairly good idea of the identity, but the second two were so unfamiliar that I could not even guess the names so I invented nicknames that I used during my whole stay in Aden. Though these species were new to me, they had previously been recorded in Aden.>>>

Here are excerpts from my notes. 15 April 1946: “Upon entering the gate, I was first struck by the number of a still (29/5/46) unidentified species, though I suspect it is some kind of weaver. The male is mainly bright yellow in colour and just a little larger than a House Sparrow [Passer domesticus]. Details are: whole underparts lemon yellow; crown more orangy; lores and a patch extending over forehead and chin black, tinged with red at the edges; top of neck and mantle greenish-yellow; rump yellow; top of tail greyish-green; wings greyish- or yellowish-green above with two yellow bars, primaries edged yellow; bill black, probably larger than that of a House Sparrow. Note: a repeated (often) harsh ‘tzik’; song, somewhat reminiscent of that of a Corn Bunting [Emberiza calandra] in its screeching clatter. The female seems very similar to a ♀ House Sparrow except for a yellowish tinge on the throat, upper breast, rump and sides of tail. Both sexes paid particular attention to a queer kind of nest, many of which were suspended from various kinds of trees. They have an entrance at the bottom and are composed chiefly of grass or the slender growth of a certain type of tree growing commonly in the gardens.” This was the _________________________* a species that is also found in neighbouring parts of Africa. Yerbury’s 1886 paper gives the first record from Aden.

QUIZ: If you think you know what species this bird was, please put its name, your name, how you identified it and the date (15 April 1946) in the comment box at the end of this post.

"Another new species is, I now know, the Eastern Long-tailed Yellow-breasted Sunbird [Nile Valley Sunbird* Hedydipna metallica]. I made the following description of it at the time: size, body very tiny, probably ≤ that of Goldcrest [Regulus regulus]. Head, throat, neck and rest of upperparts including top of tail very dark with the following sheens: purple where the black of the throat meets the yellow breast; little or none on face below eye; bright green on crown, nape and back; blue on rump. Underparts yellow on breast shading to whitish belly. Black secondaries and primaries, latter edged with fawn. Bill long and down-curved slightly, black. Medium tail, graduated, with two very long projecting feathers. Note: approximately ‘tzar-aeee’.” Two species, one western and the other eastern, of very similar long-tailed yellow-breasted sunbirds occur across the Sahel from the Atlantic coast of Africa to South-west Arabia. The eastern species also ranges up the Nile to Egypt, hence its name.

3 May 1946: “I identified the ♀ sunbird. At first I was puzzled by this. The upperparts including head above the eye and nape were a grey tinged probably with blue but possibly brownish. Above the eye was a rather noticeable light eye-stripe. The underparts were yellow, the flanks being less so than the breast and belly. The bill was very similar to that of the ♂, longish and slightly down-curved, and the habits of hovering and, when perched, constantly flicking the wings, if anything more pronounced (particularly the former). The ♂ was seen in pursuit of a ♀ several times and often snatches of a loud and pleasing song heard. (N.B. tail of ♀ quite short.)” Yerbury’s (1886) account:

Continuing my notes of 3 May 1946: “I had quite a good view of a still (15/6/46) unidentified species. [I gave it the nickname ‘blackbird-like species’.] I saw it a the beginning of April in the APL camp and there seemed to be several of its kind in the Gardens.  

 In size it was about equal to a [House] Sparrow or, if anything, slightly larger. The tail was quite long, nearly if not equal to that of the body and graduated, being widest near the end something like that of the Magpie [Pica pica]. The whole plumage and the bill were black but there was some white in the tail. From above this was seen as white tips to the main feathers (in the sketch actual number of feathers not necessarily correct). Below, however, the white was more unevenly and more abundantly distributed. The song, which was heard once or twice, was reminiscent somewhat of a Blackbird [Turdus merula] and the bird itself also gave that impression both in flight and when perched. It frequently raised its tail quite at right angles to its body which was, itself, fairly upright.” 

This was the ________________________*, a species found across the Sahel from Mauritania in the west to SW Arabia in the east. Yerbury identified this bird and found a nest, as reported in his 1896 paper:   

QUIZ: If you think you know what species this bird was, please put its name, your name, how you identified it and the date (3 May 1946) in the comment box at the end of this post.


20 May 1946: “I had closer views of the ‘sand martin-like species’ [so christened when glimpsed on 15 April 1946 because of the brown colour, horizontal posture and flocking behaviour.] There were several, probably family parties, in one area and they sat in rows on branches uttering their continuous twittering ‘chit-chit-chit’. Some (adults?) appeared to have a blue-grey tinge to the rump, otherwise they were brown. Legs were apparently white, bill horn-coloured and comparatively very large and heavy (more so than House Sparrow). The tail was black and pointed.”  

 This was the __________________*, another species that ranges right across Africa in the Sahel zone and into SW Arabia. Once again, Yerbury (1896) has precedence:

QUIZ: If you think you know what species this bird was, please put its name, your name, how you identified it and the date (20 May 1946) in the comment box at the end of this post.

Aden: Shrike migration spring 1946

Life list now 201 species

>>Not only waders!

Following the just-described adventures with waders on the Salt Pans, I saw several different kinds of migrant passerines (song birds), during the period 25 April to 30 May 1946. Here is my account of my encounters during that period with one family, the Shrikes, and, for comparison, what previous observers had written about them. >>>

30 April 1946, Salt Pans. Near the main road “I found a party of shrikes. There were half-a dozen altogether and I first noticed them on and in rolls of barbed wire. They dispersed upon my arrival and perched at various spots including the telegraph wires. One of them was a Lesser Grey Shrike * Lanius minor. The size was just greater than that of a Red-backed Shrike nearby. The most noticeable characteristic was the pinkish breast, white throat, upperparts grey, forehead, lores and behind eye black (no white over eye), bill and legs black. No black was seen on the belly. The wings were black and grey with a wide and noticeable white bar in flight. From the data, I cannot say if it was ♂ or ♀ [probably ♂ by the grey upperparts and pinkish breast]. The Red-backed Shrikes Lanius collurio were not quite as in England, one or two having a white wing bar for instance [The latter were probably Isabelline Shrikes Lanius isabellinus, a species I was as yet not aware of.] There were definite ♀ of this species (even barring etc. seen on the breast.)” On 3 May in the Settlement Gardens, Sheikh Othman, there was “a ♂ Red-backed Shrike (?). It had no white stripe over the eye and all of underparts except white chin and throat were ‘pinkish buff’. The back seemed, though of a richer brown than usual [i.e. as in England], not to be really rufous.” I found more shrikes on 6 May between Khormaksar airfield and the mud flats. “Along a section of the barbed wire fence I estimated c.10 ♂ and c.5 ♀ Red-backed Shrikes (?) I noticed a ♀ approach a ♂ sitting on a pile of b. wire, and fluttered 4-6 feet from him, calling “tsack”. This was continued for about 5 seconds. The ♂ appeared completely unmoved. On another section of the fence there were three Lesser Grey Shrikes”

>>These excerpts from Ibis show that my records of Lesser Grey Shrikes were the first for Aden and hence my fifth addition to the Aden list. These records were even more notable for, according to Meinertzhagen's 1954 book The Birds of Arabia, the Lesser Grey Shrike had never been reported in the whole of Arabia on spring migration (though noted in the autumn). From its breeding (orange) and winter (blue) ranges shown in the accompanying map, it would be expected in Arabia on both passages. Meinertzhagen's non-acceptance of my records was a blow, and the start of my apprehensive disagreements with him, for he was a highly respected authority. I subsequently learned that Steve Norris noted the Lesser Grey Shrike in Aden in spring 1952 and Paige (1960) in early May 1958. Such confirmation increased my confidence that I had been right and was repeated, as will be elaborated in other posts. Still, I never expected that Meinertzhagen would be exposed as one of the worst ornithological fraudsters in history.
 
Red-backed Shrikes had been reported before on migration by Meinertzhagen in April 1922 and were also observed by Paige in April-May 1958 and Clarke in May 1961. Later in the blog I will report my observations in Aden on other species of shrike, including all those mentioned above.

These passages highlight the importance given by previous observers in Aden to obtaining specimens of birds. Their motto was:

When I arrived in 1946, I did not have any means of following this old procedure: no gun, no way to preserve specimens. I had no camera. Modern tools such as mist nets with which to catch birds and field guides for identification had not yet arrived on the scene. The only means I had of authenticating my records was of writing down and sketching what I observed. Hence the wealth of descriptive detail and diagrams in my notes, which may strike a modern reader, who does not know the reasons, as strange and unnecessary. >>>