Hypocolius

Abdulla and I were up early this morning trying to net grey hypocolius in Jazra. We counted 110 birds but failed to catch this time. Below are two shots of the birds.

Today was a good day for spotting hypocolius. I dropped into the new site at Jasra at 7am to see if any birds were present and found a local trapper there. He caught a bird which we acquired from him and duely ringed and released.
In the afternoon myself and Abdulla returned to see if there were any birds roosting. On the southeastern corner of the village we spotted 100-120 birds rising from a set of acacia trees and heading ESE towards Buri. While we didn't manage to find the roost, the pre-roost gathering was impressive. If you are intending to come to Bahrain to see hypocolius I suggest you concentrate on the Jasra area at any time of the day.

Below is the male bird we ringed.

I spotted this bird relaxing in a low bush


This is the site at Jasra behind the graveyard

BK - On my way down to the Chicken farm at 3pm this afternoon there were two grey hypocolius in the tamerisk tree at the Jasra roundabout. I stopped for a few minutes to see if any others might arrive but the two birds flew NNW. I followed them to the rough ground directly behind the cemetary where they were joined by a third bird. There are a few old stunted palm trees mixed with tamerisk, a very suitable roost site. Unfortunately the birds left the trees and headed east but I didn't have time to relocate them a second time. Below is a shot of the three birds. I think we are getting closer to finding their roost. The plot thickens.

No I don't mean the grey hypocolius! I mean a group of bird watchers. Mike Watson brough a group of 6 bird watchers on a tour which included Bahrain. The target species were Mourning Wheatear, Egyptian Nightjar and of course the Grey Hypocolius. The first two were easy to get, the Jebel Al Durkan always has Mourning Wheatears and the experimental farm at Hamala produced 3-4 Egyptian nightjars. The Hypocolius was more problematic as we hadn't seen any since the spring and the roost site in Sar was destroyed over the summer.
The group were on the road at 5.30am with only one day to shake the hypocolius out of their hiding places. 'Start on the northern coast in the garden opposite the Delmon dog kennels and move west and south from there'. The first text was in at 7.05am '5 Hypocolius flew nw over area of gdns just w of entr to Delmon Dog kennels. Not yet relocated'. Then a second message with a sighting of 8 more. By the time I got there Howard had arrived and Abdulla followed shortly afterwards. The smiles were everywhere and the thumbs were up!

A rare sight in Bahrain

Mike eyeing up a male hypocolius feeding in the palms

Mike captures the bird on camera

We have a visiting group from Birdquest lead by Mike Watson with us this weekend and as expected Hypocolius was the main target species but with no sightings these year at all where to send them. As good luck favours the brave it was suggested they check out the last know location from last year in Barber but in the morning at first light - well fortune smiled and a healthy number of birds were found.
location 26°13'46.85"N 50°28'14.89"E
Hypocolius

more details will follow as we intend to return this afternoon to see if the birds are using the area as a roost Well we returned this afternoon and I spent from 3-15 to 5-00 when it get dark watching the area no birds. So it would appear that this is no more than a feeding station but given the early hour the birds where seen it can not be that far from a roost.

When driving back along a busy Budaiya Highway close to Magaba fire station I was surprised to see a lone Hypocolius fly out of a palm in the middle of the road. Given that it was almost dark a roost must also still exist in this area as well - the search will continue!!!!

Not looking good so far - have not found any birds yet but we continue to look they have to be here somewhere just finding them is the problem