Emirates Golf Club – or Ghantoot after all? Somehow I can’t find the direction to the south. Road traffic in UAE is a thing of its own. As I drive north, Safa Park is actually the first on the route. All right, I’ll take that. Unfortunately it’s still too early and I still have to hang around the fence. The guard is very strict. The many joggers make me think more of San Francisco. The sunlight so early in the morning at 7:30 a.m. too. Great, that’s how I imagined birding. Between the bars of the fence I can already note my first approach: seeing a White-eared Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis). Then: the rhythmic calling seems familiar to me. That’s right: that’s part of the Graceful Prinia (Prinia gracilis), which can also be seen and photographed for a short time. Otherwise, the Graceful Prinia can mainly be heard.
It is no longer named that today and has been split off. Due to genetic, vocal and morphological differences, the species was split The ones found in Arabia are now called Delicate Prinia (Prinia lepida).
While the Graceful Prinia occurs in the Middle East, the western and southern Arabian Peninsula, and northeast Africa, the Delicate Prinia has taken over the eastern range. The range runs east from south-east Turkey along both sides of the Persian Gulf via the north Indian subcontinent to Bangladesh. The Delicate Prinia is a small bird that varies from a warm brown to a pale grey-brown or grey. Its long, heavily graduated, narrow, dark-striped tail with whitish tips is striking. It occurs in dense vegetation such as scrub, bushes (e.g. Tamarix) and reed beds. However, it has also made it into anthropogenic habitats. The Safa Park is one of these. It is a recreation area in the middle of Dubai. Lawn sprinklers are plentiful and busy in the mornings to keep the green in the hot environment.
To cope with the growing demand for top shots of the rarer species of the Palearctic Bird-Lens is keen to enrich the range of pictures of birds you can find in the western palearctic. Trips to remote places like this one to capture images not only of rare birds of western palearctic were very successful. The nice image of the blog is only a first impression, what you will find in the gallery in the “Picture Shop” very soon. Just give bird-lens.com a message, if bird-lens.com could serve you with an image needed before the new pictures are online.