Blue Eyed Birder: Oman - An Arabian Adventure

After a swift breakfast we left good and early and headed up into the hills and within an hour had arrived at Ayn Tabraq where a spring bubbles up and wends its way sinuously through the Ficus groves. We pulled up by a ford but did not get out. There was an outside chance of Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak dropping on for a drink so we stayed put and watch the comings and goings in complete solitude. It was not too long after dawn and it took a little while to get going but then the birds started to pile in and we were afforded excellent views of a wealth of species.

Gangs of Abyssinian White-eyes would pluck up the courage to come down for a bath in the clear water and at the time I was puzzled by the almost sticky looking foreheads. They were often joined by the similar sized African Silverbills, shining Palestine Sunbirds and a variety of Chiffchaffs of which there were several gleaming ‘peeing’ Siberian and typical browny-olive looking Common Chiffchaffs that included both huweeters and peepers once again. It was fun!

Abyssinian White-eye

Abyssinian White-eyes splashing in a puddle

Abyssinian White-eyes

African Silverbill

Palestine Sunbird

Siberian Chiffchaff

Siberian Chiffchaff - oddly no other Chiffchaff of any type posed at all

Cinnamon-breasted Buntings came down and both White and Grey Wagtails came and went and you know how much I like a Grey Wag. A pair of Arabian Sunbirds posed nicely and the size difference between them and the Palestines was huge. A Red-breasted Flycatcher rattled and quickly dropped in for a bath before having in preen in the bushes alongside and flashing all its id features and lingered longer than the 1w Bluethroat that popped out of the Persecaria briefly. It was not on my expected list for this trip. An African Paradise Flycatcher came in too but did not come down to drink. The head looked almost bruised black in the sunlight.

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Red-breasted Flycatcher

Arabian Sunbird

Arabian Sunbirds

African Paradise Flycatcher

Grey Wagtail

Bluethroat

A group of Ruppell’s Weavers arrived – a small species and joined a couple of White-spectacled Bulbuls for liquid refreshment. Of the Grosbeaks there was no sign but it really did not matter.

Ruppell’s Weaver

When things quietened down we parked up and explored downstream to a lush waterfall. The local Camels were already taking advantage of the spring and shade and also had a regular neck rubbing bough that they were saying hello to.

That branch belong to the towering Fig above which unlike European Figs the fruit is produced from the trunk. They hung out of reach to me and even the neck stretching camels but they tree was also full of birds and the origin of the sticky orange foreheads of the White-eyes became clears as they joyfully poked their heads into the soft fruit!

Ficus sycomorus

Down on the ground the fallen figs were covered in clouds of curious Stalk-eyed Flies. Not sure I have ever seen one before. There were Black Mollies, Garra of some sort and Tilapia of various sizes and scooting around above them were a host of Odonata including Cherry Eyed Sprite which was a new one. Some dark hawkers confused us but apparently there are none!

Stalk-eyed Fly - Sphyracephala beccarii

Red-winged Dropwing

Violet Dropwing

Broad Scarlet

Cherry-eyed Sprite

Epaulet Skimmer

Common Citril

Broad Scarlet

Lang's Short-tailed Blue

Plain Tiger

Castor Oil Plant - Ricinus communis

Frogfruit -Phyla nodiflora

Lindenbergia indica

Spotted Heart - Stictocardia tiliifolia

Winged Treebine - Cissus quadrangularis

Tilapia sp with a much larger species

Tilapia sp

Steve and Tom were after a couple of specialised Dragons and so we wiggled out way out of the valley and through the dry foothills dotted with Wheatears and Camels to the park at Ayn Hamran. A pair of Pallid Harriers, Long-legged Buzzard, Hoopoe and Kestrels were also seen on the way.

Solarnum incanum

There was a concrete ringed and shaded spring complete with the prerequisite fish and dragonflies but not the Bladetail that they were after. There was however another new one and the concrete rills coming out of the spring had Ringed Cascaders cruising up and down and I wondered if this was what we had seen at Ayn Tabraq.

A trio of Dropwings- Red-winged, Orange-winged and Violet Dropwings

Epaulet Skimmer

Violet Dropwing

Red-winged Dropwing

Orange-winged Dropwing

Cinnamon-breasted Buntings were coming down to drink along with Laughing Doves and in the shade we found Common Sandpipers, Silverbills, our first trip Tree Pipit and a very obliging African Paradise Flycatcher. I could have spent more time there searching the shady spots and flowing rills but we had places to be and soon moved on.

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Common Sandpiper

African Paradise Flycatcher

A vague diversion across the vast sandy plain between the mountains and the main road into Salalah gave us our first Black-crowned Sparrow-Larks which flicked between silver and black as they danced across the sands. The female were perfectly matched for the terrain and, like us, were squinting in the harsh light. They even seen to have ‘fat eyelids’ to cut out more. There were Crested Larks too, a Long-billed Pipit, both Grey Shrikes and the default Desert and Isabelline Wheatears.

Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark

Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark - Mrs Squinty

Steppe Grey Shrike

Tea break transport

Al Saadah Park back in town was our destination and even before we pulled up we had spied a Grey-headed Kingfisher perched up on a snag. Finding it in the park was trickier as you would see a flash of electric blue wings and scarlet dagger of a bill as it dashed low between the park trees. A party of Scaly-breasted Munias were feeding on the grass and where the sprinklers were working there were White Wagtails and several Western Yellows with some obvious Sykes (beema) and rather oddly what looked like a classic male British Yellow (flavissima)? About 70 House Crows were making an awful racket but we could not find anything trying to roost in the trees.

This certainly looks like a British male M f flavissima

Syke's Wagtail (M f beema)

Scaly-breasted Munias

Gulmohar - Delnox regina

It was now very hot so we made our way back. Once back in SalaIah I could see the sea gleaming and took myself down to the beach. It did not take too long to reach the hot sand and I thoroughly enjoyed my paddle through the Arabian surf. I did not even take my bins and only my camera and enjoyed watching the gulls and a few waders while the waves tickled my toes and small little conical molluscs were repeatedly revealed by each wave only to flip out a foot and wiggle back under cover once again! There are huge signs all the way along the coast about not entering the sea for your own safety but nothing explaining the risk. I was unsure whether it was a viscous undertow, sharks, sea snakes or some other unseen threat!

Caspian Tern and Heuglin's Gull

Curlew

Curlew, Caspian Tern and Black-headed Gull

Wiggly-foot Cone Shell - well that's what I'm calling it

Redshanks and a Marsh Sandpiper on the beach

Sooty Gull

Slender-billed Gulls

Greenshank

I came back further up the beach where Crested Larks and Desert Wheatears were trying their best to keep to the shady areas under the beach palms.

Desert Wheatear

Crested Lark

After a much needed nap we headed north down the beach from the Khawr Ad Dahariz and spent the rest of the afternoon working away along around all the smaller khawrs that do not quite make to the sea. The Glossy Ibis flock was as spectacular as previous days and we found Purple Herons and several Squaccos. All the terns were seen and on a well vegetated water there were quite a few more Coots, Moorhens, Little Grebes, Shoveler, Teal and even another two Wigeon. Ospreys and Marsh Harriers were continuously on patrol.

Glossy Ibis

Glossy Ibises, Stilts and a Western Reef Egret

Osprey

Marsh Harrier

Squacco and BHGs

Little Stint

Dunlin

Little Stint

Common Sandpiper

Large flocks of Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse were heading to a favoured watering spot and were arriving from various inland directions while two big flocks of Ruff shot through low, looking like Sandgrouse at first glance. There were plenty of small birds too with several Northern Wheatears joining the default Issys and Deserts and four Shrikes with both Greys and Red-tails. Citrine Wagtails were around the margins while the flava Wagtails were running around the huge plate feet of the numerous Camels but they were not all Syke’s with two very smart male Grey-headeds amongst them.

Camel, Grey-headed Wagtail and the Arabian Sea

Only hours old

Isabelline Wheatear

Desert Wheatear

Grey-headed Wagtail(M f thunbergi)

Grey-headed Wagtail (M f thunbergi)

Daurian Shrike (imho)

Turkestan Shrike (imho)

Arabian Shrike

As we neared the Ad Dahariz we spied two Small Pratincoles on the closest edge of the water not 20 feet away but the joy did not last long as inevitably one of the numerous locals walked in front of us and down to the edge spooking the birds. Evening beach life is seemingly such a huge part of Omani life and the birds are seemingly used to being periodically moved around. We watched them hawking for ten minutes and Stinky #2 popped back to the flat to pick up Stinky #1 who was roosting.

Small Pratincole

Small Pratincole - I saw one in Sri Lanka in 2024 but it never showed off these wings!

Thankfully they were still on the wing when they returned and we all enjoyed them aerobatically swooping in and out of the gulls and terns on fancily pied wings. They then plopped down right in front of us for a prime photo shoot. A truly tiny Pratincole in subtle dove greys with a peachy-apricot flush on the front. They would periodically tail pump and head bob and were always watching out for a microscopic flying morsel to nip up for.

Small Pratincole - what a magnificent little wader

The regular Western Reef Egret fed in the shallows jus a few feet away

With the light fading we walked away from them and made our way back to base before heading down to the very posh Crowne Plaza for their extensive buffet dinner. It was a different world to the one we had been enjoying all week in every single way. You can only ‘get’ alcohol in five star hotels in Oman and I did indulge in a g’n’t but the thought of splashing out on a bottle of bubbly was truly terrifying!

The Tattinger & Moet worked out at £468.42 a bottle and the Dom a snip at £950.42...

We walked around the grounds afterwards looking very dodgy with our torches as we searched for Spotted Thick-knees. They eluded us but we did see some large Egyptian Fruit-Bats licking sap from the leaves of a fig tree which they did so by crashing into a leaf, hanging on, sticking out a long pink tongue and then dropping back to conduct another circuit.

Egyptian Fruit-Bat

Blue Eyed Birder

Friday, 2 January 2026

Oman - An Arabian Adventure - 9th December 2025

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