December 18th 2022 (Tanja van de Linde and Robert de Groot from Netherlands )
A family trip to Tunisia, with some birding as a real bonus.
“…..As to birding, one has to be very observant to find a lot of different species within the city. Having your own transport might help, but the traffic is, to say the least, mildly African. So, for one day we hired the best birding guide in Tunisia and his friend to take us around the suburbs and beyond :
Mohamed El Golli, tunisiabirdwatching.wordpress.com
The first birds seen until that trip on Dec 18th, including a day in the northern suburbs of Tunis, La Marsa, Sidi Bou Saïd and Carthage were few in variety. Two Lanner Falcons were sitting on their keepers’ hands in Sidi Bou Saïd, they do not really count as ticks. ´
Over there we did see House Martin, Black Redstart, Common Bulbul and House Sparrow. From the beach of La Marsa we saw Grey Heron, Cormorant, Black-headed Gull and a locally uncommon Black-legged Kittiwake. Twice a Kestrel was spotted, patrolling the cliffs at Gammarth. Several Laughing Dove, Blackbird, Sardinian Warbler and Spotless Starling were on the grounds of the Golden Carthage Hotel.
The day with Mohamed and Yassin started punctually at 07.30. We drove for about 45 minutes to our first stop, and then the species started rolling in: Waders, ducks, Flamingo on the lake, Great Grey Shrike, Greenfinch, Zitting Cisticola, White Wagtail, Common Snipe, and North African Buzzard on land and in the air.
Short sidestep into species creation. According to Darwin this only happens over long periods; think several hundred generations. Wrong, it only takes one ornithological congress, or a single committee meeting and you have new species. In vernacular: “splitting”. This allows on one hand for new editions of updated birding books, and on the other hand on some confusion. Isn´t science wonderful? North African Buzzard
used to be a subspecies of Long-legged Buzzard, Buteo rufinus. Then came the DNA collectors and they found the birds´ DNA to be much nearer to Buteo b.. But, it looks still more more different in some characteristics compared to the latter species than it is differing from Buteo r. And then came a committee meeting: It is now called Buteo cirtensis, Buse du Mahgreb in French. The Chaffinch also has a
subspecies, clearly different from the European continental one, but without a proper committee meeting yet. So, it still is a subspecies: Fringilla coelebs spodiogenys. But we have secured a future armchair tick when these will be split. It feels comfortable to have seen both, a female spodiogenys and a male F.c.c. On the other hand: Blue Tit and African Blue Tit, Cyanistes ultramarinus, are in their post-congressional phase.
As we had already seen Blue Tit in Europe, it became a lifer when we spotted ultramarinus, several splits still needing to be seen on other trips. For those interested in more confusion, try the GFKABB,HAC: Gulls Formerly Known As Black-Backed-, Herring- And Common-.
Needless to stress that we saw the Baltic Gull at the lake and later heard the African Blue Tit (we rounded that one up with a good sighting the next morning, the 19 th , on the hotel grounds).
From the lake we went further inland, through a landscape that started to be less polluted by plastic, becoming drier as well. Tunisia did not have any rain for months; some dams even ran dry. Mohamed knew where to stop for different species. So, we found Little Owl, sitting close to the road, Greenfinch, Serin and the sublime Moussier’s´ Redstart. What a stunner. We saw quite some, males predominantly, but also a female. That one is not as brightly colored as her spouse. The first male was picked up by Yassin, just a meter away from him in a bush. Of course, the bird flew off, but obliged by landing nearby and keeping in sight. It remained “bird of the show”, even when we found, on a stop near Zriba el Alia, a Berber Village, several pairs of House Bunting. These are (here, and in this season?) more intensely colored than they
show in the guidebooks. Nevertheless beautiful, bright orangey chest, and grey streaked head. We only expected this species much further south, so it felt as a real bonus. The merits of having a good guide.
All this, combined with a good hearty picknick lunch, made it into a pleasurable day. We were back at the hotel after five, just before sunset. The triplist had risen from about 13 to 58 species…….”
Birdwatching Tunisia 