Birds Of The Middle East And North Africa – Philip Hollom

Christensen Grey Hornbill Tockus nasutus Identification: 48 cm. Sexes similar (bill colour differs). Though predominantly brown, quite Status: see map. Resident. Grey Hornbill Habitat: acacia woodland, plains and hills unmistakable, with stout decurved bill, long tail, slow undulating flight and characteristic voice. Dark brown above with narrow white mantle band and buffish-white feather edgings to wings giving mottled appearance; head blackish-brown with long, broad, white supercilium. Throat and upper breast brownish-grey, rest of underparts off-white; blackish-brown tail with white streaks and tips to feathers.

Male has black bill and horn (barely noticeable — looking like part of bill) with ivory-yellow patch at base of upper mandible and 3-5 white lines on lower mandible; in female, ivory-yellow patch far more extensive and end of bill red. Flight unexpectedly slow, deeply undulating, with slow wing-beats interspersed with glides; fairly broad wings show conspicuous white trailing edge to blackish flight feathers, also white tip to tail.

Rather unobtrusive, spending much time concealed on branches of trees, when more often heard than seen. Frequently occurs in small parties. Voice: loud descending, plaintive mewing ‘piiiuuu’; also loud, almost raptorial, ‘kee-kee-kee- kee-kerra-kerra’. Song starts slowly ‘coi, coi, coi etc’ (or ‘coi-coi-coi-coi-coi-coi’ as continuous rising and falling trill) changing to ‘trii-jip, trii-jip, trii-jip’, etc, building to crescendo, with head thrown up and almost backwards. (250-2,000 m) with mature trees, though commoner at lower altitude. Nests in hole in tree, where female is almost walled-in.

Wryneck Jynx torquilla Identification: 16 cm. See PMH. Status: see map. May breed NW Iran. Mainly resident NW Africa. Summer visitor N Turkey otherwise widespread passage throughout the region, though generally uncommon. Has wintered Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Oman. Habitat: gardens, orchards, parks and scrub with trees, can occur in any area with scrub or bushes on migration. Nests in natural holes in trees, masonry, etc. Grey-headed Woodpecker Picus canus Identification: 25 cm. See PMH.

First published 1988 by T & AD Poyser Ltd Town Head House, Calton, Staffordshire, England All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the permission of the publisher British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Birds of the Middle East and North Africa.

1. Middle East. Birds 2. North Africa. Birds I. Hollom, P. A. D. (Philip Arthur Dominic), 1912- II Willis, lan 598.2956 ISBN 0-85661—047-X Text set in Monophoto Photina, printed and bound in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd, Frome and London Colour plates by Lawrence-Allen Ltd, Weston-super-Mare Contents Introduction Acknowledgements Species accounts References Checklist Index of English names Index of scientific names Colour plates (1-40) are between pages 160 and 161 11 13 DOM 259 267 275 apind ou} Aq potaAoo kore OU], =” – go t \ Beg te Se \ SS) 2 “e ea TSS edi S Sa \ SS ss Zz, aA ‘ Snape eee eg) \ | < \ i} S N | = Xx 1 4 IN \ , NS \ LdAOT | ‘

Where that work already describes a species adequately we generally omit identification details but give information on distribution, status and habitat in the Middle East and North Africa. The need for a book such as this was brought home to the book’s oldest author during the 1940s when he was having to visit at short notice places in and around the Mediterranean, and occasionally as far afield as Warsaw, Baghdad and Riyadh.

This contributed to the coverage of the northern parts of the general area in A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe (1954), but the southern and eastern parts were — and to a large extent remain — more inscrutable. Great help has been generously provided by many ornithologists and other observers over the years, starting in the 1950s with the preparation of some distribution maps for the project by Col.

Richard Meinertzhagen who was at that time the outstanding authority on the birds of the Middle East; his interest and support were encouragement indeed.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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