Near the hotel in central Abha

Even a walk round the block can produce good birds within urban Abha. Bernard Bracken and I went for such a walk just before dusk on Friday. Birds such as Yemen thrush, Graceful prinia and Ruepell's weaver were easily seen on a piece of wasteland near by.

Bruce's green pigeon

One tree had three Bruce's green pigeon in.

Shining sunbird

There were two birds we hadn't seen all day during 10 hours of birding. These were shining sunbird and black bush robin. Unfortunately the first bird was in heavy moult and wasn't looking its best.

Black bush robin

The black bush robin was of the local sub species only found in the Asir highlands. It's not really black but more of a dark brown.

If I have any regrets about our weekend at Abha it was not spending more time on the edge of the city. It has great potential.

In the next blog, I look in some depth at what we saw on Saturday outside Abha on the Muhayil road (north west of the city).