birding sites in
Morocco: the deserts
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Wednesday, 24 August 2011
An opportunity for Agadir-based birdwatchers to see desert birds without travelling east of Ouarzazate. This area has previously received less attention than the famous ‘Tagdilt track’ near Boumalne but, at least in some winters, it has been better than that site. Apart from an almost comprehensive collection of larks and wheatears, there are also Tawny Eagles, Scrub Warblers and Fulvous Babblers, all more reliable than elsewhere in Morocco. In winter, Lanner Falcon seem to collect here in numbers.
All the sites in this section are treated, in detail and with precise maps and directions, in my book ‘Finding Birds in Morocco: the deserts’
If you have any information which you feel would help to update the book, please email me at dave@easybirder.co.uk and I’ll add your observations to these pages
To view more sites in Morocco’s deserts click here
Goulimine area
In recent years some birders have been disappointed in the range of desert species on show in this area but it is still a key area to visit if you want to see Scrub Warbler. This bird is of the paler race (saharae) but the birds found around Goulimine are of the darker race (theresae) which is confined, in the western Palearctic, to south-west Morocco. Scrub Warblers have been very hard to find recently, though my book suggests a number of sites worth trying.
Updates
March 2011 (D Gosney et al)
Having read that the deserts of Goulimine aren’t as good as they once were, I was delighted to find an almost comprehensive collection of larks and wheatears including Bar-tailed Lark, Hoopoe Lark, Temminck’s Lark, both Short-toed Larks, Red-rumped, White-crowned and Desert Wheatears and even Thick-billed Lark - a singing male and his partner were apparently breeding at site 3 (page 30). We also had Cream-coloured Courser, Trumpeter Finch and a flock of sandgrouse that were too distant to hear or identify. Best of all we had a pair of Scrub Warblers nest building at site 4 and heard another at site 3 - both new sites as far as I know. This was a relief as we had failed to find them at the more ‘traditional’ sites 1 and 2.
