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Arab World Birds
Sir Peter Scott –
“We shan’t save all we would like to, but we shall save a great
deal more than if we had never tried”
Remember to Check out below – Important Contemporary Issues – Famine in Horn of Africa
Welcome to this ArabWorldBirds website, which is attempting to eventually cover and bring together on line an introduction to all ornithological and birding matters relating to the whole Arab World, (plus a few adjacent regions to fill in the gaps) to complete the full ornithological picture across Northern Africa, from The Atlantic to The Horn of Africa, The Middle East to Iran, The South Caucasus, and The Arabian Peninsular. The only remaining outlying region is The Comoros Islands. It is an ambitious long term project that is taking some time bring together into a coherent scheme, thank you for your patience.
LATEST UPDATES – All GCC, Maghreb, Mediterranean, the Levant, and Arab Arabian Peninsular countries species lists, have now been done. I am pleased to announce that further intermediate progress has also been achieved, with more than 1260 species cards, on the AWB Species page– link, that have now been completed, including the full Species Lists for Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, UAE, Oman, KSA, Yemen, Socotra, Comoros Iraq Turkey, Syria, Cyprus, and all the Levant states of Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Egypt. – please check them out… In addition big improvements have been made with the Categories search tool, to extend its usefulness in species and family searches, also as a further aid to finding species. I have also started to introduce links to the Species Cards, using the new alternative names that are continuously being introduced, and existing old traditional names, this I think, will be a useful function for the Categories search tool to link to existing and historical published books to get over the confusion caused by the never ending name changes that are ongoing.
As far as I am aware, this is the first attempt to co-ordinate the ornithology of all the countries in the Arab World into one region, at the moment it is covered by a number of different organisations but the two primary scientific ones which cover parts of The AWB Region are:-
1 The African Bird Club……. for all the Arab Countries in Africa
2 The Ornithological Society of The Middle East……. for The Middle East, The Arabian Peninsular, Iran and Central Asia.
Anyone interested in Arab World Birds are encouraged to join these societies.
In addition there are now various active blogs covering countries or smaller regions within the main AWB AREA, links to these sites can be found on the relevant Country Profile Pages.
Arab World Birds – Site Layout
All main menus are established and all Country Profiles have now been updated to provide comprehensive information for all EBA’s, IBA’s and Marine IBA’s within the AWB Region.
All the Country Profiles have been revised and updated again to include extensive Multimedia links to the new Multimedia Checklists for each country and an additional AWB menu has now been added to give easier access to the many different Country Checklists with extensive additional species information links that have also been added.
The REGION MAP menu now has the essential information on the Country Profiles for all the Arab Countries in the AWB Region, in both Africa and the Middle East Regions.
The REGIONAL TOPICS menu has started will a few items of regional interest.
The BASICS menu has links to help brush up your basic birding skills.
The TAXONOMY menu has been started to give an introduction to this complex subject.
The AWB menu has been added to give convenient links to Country Checklists and additional extensive Species Information.
The DESERTS menu gives a comprehensive introduction to the Deserts of the AWB Region.
The MIGRATION menu has started with many links and explanations to the various Flyways that cross the AWB Region
The CONSERVATION menu gives introductions to some of the important organisations that are dedicated to helping preserve birds and their habitats in the AWB Region to the enrichment of all human life and environments.
The NEWS menu gives several links to continuously updated NEWS reports on current bird and conservation matters within the AWB Region from a number of international conservation bodies. Some of these are also available
from the “Continuously Updated News Sources” heading below.
NEW Added Feature
The most important new feature, that is now in progress, is the addition of individual Species Accounts of the birds that regularly occur in the AWB Region. Starting with the Accipitridae Family all species will eventually be included on the AWB menu. As noted above, a significant number of Species-cards for none-passerine species on the AWB page has now been achieved, also two new categories have been introduced, Accidentals and Vagrants, which clarify the treatment of these concepts.
Continuously Updated News Sources
As a convenience to our readers we give immediate access to a selection of breaking news sources concerning Conservation and AWB bird stories on our home page here, by clicking on any of the links listed below:-
Conservation News & Stories – WWF … Many continuously updated news items
News Articles: Convention on Migratory Species – CMS … Regularly updated news items in several languages
UNEP News Centre…UN Environment Program news centre.
IUCN Home…International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
IUCN Red List News… News about endangered species.
The Sound Approach – understanding bird sound
BirdLife News…The Worlds Largest Conservation Partnership.
Important Contemporary Issues
Why Bison Grazing Could Be Good For The Planet-BBC UN Historic Ocean Protection Treaty - The National Global Warming Tragedy - The National COP15 - Nations seal deal to protect Nature-BBC Plastic Pollution - Birds Living In Our Rubbish - BBC Earth Overshoot Day - TheNational UAE Surprising Facts - TheNational Horn of Africa facing Famine - TheNational Golden Opportunity to restore species and ecosystems - TheNational Mr Savy saviour of the Sooty Terns - BBC New Generations- TheNational Songs of Disappearance - Birdlife Australia Nature's soundtrack in chronic decline - TheNational Ultimate Irony - Cape Gannet - Birdlife Extinction Red List Updated - IUCN Is Feeding Garden Birds a Good Idea - BBC Corals and seabirds - National Geographic Nature Crisis in Global Biodiversity -BBC Puffins Climate Change threat - BBC Boost biodiversity at home - BBC Gulls and Cities - BBC The Surprising Truth About Vultures - BBC Climate Change Review - Summary Gov.uk Socotra Needs Help - The National World Oceans Day - unep.org New Ocean Recognised by National Geographic Why Wetlands Matter - wetlands.org Global Big Day - 8 May 2021 UAE Releases 86 Falcons into Kazakhstan skies A HEALTHY PLANET Should be a Human Right - Birdlife Wildlife in Catastrophic Decline - WWF -BBC Mangrove conservation video - NASA Black wind turbine blade can cut bird deaths- BBC Red Alert - RSPB Bird Tracking - a Master Class - BTO 'Hotspot Hero' for inspirational conservation work - Birdlife Abu Dhabi trains squads of birds to pick up litter in Parks Birdlife Case Study - The Jordan Valley nature conservation Abu Dhabi saves rare duck from extinction Houbara claws it's way back from the brink of extinction Evolution of the House Sparrow Want to save sea birds? - Then Follow Them! Saving Red-billed Tropic Birds Climate Change - Arctic no longer safe for breeding birds Ramsar Convention on Wetlands 2 - Dubai - October 2018 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands - Dubai, October 2018 Conservation of the Northern Bald Ibis - bbc.com How birds survived an asteroid strike Socotra Cyclone Mekunu Damage Parakeet Range Extension Reducing poisoning pressures on Scavengers and Waterbirds Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Accompanied Swan Migration World Migratory Bird Day White Storks in Portugal White Storks changing their Migration Patterns World is failing to protect it's Migratory Birds Africa's Vultures sliding towards extinction!!! Widespread Lead Poisoning to birds Are humans Uinique? Garden bird survey aims to solve Goldfinch mystery More potential UK Extinctions Iliegal Bird Killing in the Mediterranean Region - birdlife.org... This has become everybody's problem... Bald Ibis Conservation Project - bbc.co.uk... Morocco has the largest surviving population in the wild. Record Breaking Number of Europeans Call on Governments to Protect Nature What is the point of Conservation? - bbc.com - An indepth Analysis to an important pressing problem
Exceptional Birds
Steppe Whimbrel sighted in UAE The Wandering Albatross strikes back Intelligent Crows Fox catches rabbit, then eagle swoops in... Osprey fishing Penguin and Man Fossil Birds and Sea Monsters New species of Himalayan Thrush discovered... When love is better than food This article refers to the Chestnut-crowned Babbler from Australia, but perhaps this could also be true for The Arabian Babbler native to the AWB Region? Eagle with camera flies from Dubai Skyscraper (The Tallest Building in the World) ...For a quick glimpse into an eagle's eye view check out this outstanding video... Vultures: Natures Rubbish Collectors - bbc.com...Public Servants who never go on strike
Migration and Related Topics
Egypt signs landmark Agreement to Save Migratory Birds Protecting Migratory Birds in the Mediterrranean Global protection of Migratory Birds - CMS Second Meeting of African-Eurasian migratory-landbirds working group Don't forget to check out your favourite bird's migration pattern on our Migration Hotspots page and investigate or even get involved with the well established Cuckoo Tracking Project of the BTO check the Tracking Map right here. Tracking Bird Migration by satellite is now much more extensive, and many more projects can now be found by searching online, maybe you can find some more information about your favourite bird's whereabouts when it migrates away from your home area. Good Luck...