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.