Birds of Oman
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Birds of Oman

Arabic: bird =

There are about 495 bird species in Oman, including its coastal waters and surrounding islands. These pages contain our steadily growing account of spottings and photography of birds in Oman.

Currently we have information available on about 80 bird species listed as endemic to Oman (20 of which were observed by us elsewhere), with about 45 thumbnail images for those species of which we have the best photos (more thumbnails are available for species seen by us in Australia). Photos shown on this web site are available FOR SALE.

Birds observed by us are identified using the field guide "Birds of the Middle East" by Porter, Christensen and Schiermacker-Hansen. The consecutive numbering scheme in this guide from 1994 is quite outdated. We attempt here to group the species observed in Oman into family groups as used by Morcombe (external link) in his "Field Guide to Australian Birds" (see the Australian bird pages for reference). This grouping is done without scientific knowledge and may therefore be partly inconsistent or wrong.

Navigation

The navigation bar above (second tier) provides links to a number of high-level pages and, in addition, to each of the family groups of birds, following the "Field Guide to Australian Birds" by Morcombe. Hovering your cursor above the numbers, you will see which bird families each group comprises. All birds presented on these pages are listed in an INDEX.

New additions

Date Change
27/02/2010 Added Turtle Dove, Pallid Scops Owl. A direct comparison of the plumages of male Purple Sunbirds, first photos of a male White Wagtail and improved photos of Red-tailed Wheatears now available.
20/02/2010 Added Striated Heron, Kestrel, Hume's Wheatear, Brown-necked Raven, Scrub Warbler, Crested Lark.
08/01/2010 Added Little Owl, House Bunting.
28/12/2009 Added Great Cormorant, Black-tailed Godwit, Greater Sand Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Slender-billed Gull, Arabian Babbler, Red-tailed Wheatear, Blue Rock Thrush.
15/12/2009 Added Glossy Ibis, Great Egret, Western Reef Heron, Squacco Heron, Indian Pond Heron, Spoonbill, White-tailed Plover, Black Redstart, Desert Wheatear.
19/11/2009 Added Egyptian Vulture, Common Sandpiper, Spotted Flycatcher, Isabelline Shrike, White Wagtail, Barn Swallow.
30/10/2009 Added Temminck's Stint, Desert Lesser Whitethroat, Graceful Prinia.
15/10/2009 The first pages have been created:
Grey Francolin, Mute Swan, Grey Heron, Little Egret, White Stork, Green Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Whimbrel, Black-winged Stilt, Red-wattled Plover, Laughing Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Ring-necked Parakeet, Little Green Bee-eater, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Indian Roller, Hoopoe, Purple Sunbird, Golden Oriole, House Crow, House Sparrow, Grey Wagtail, Indian Silverbill, African Rock Martin, White-cheeked Bulbul, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Red-vented Bulbul, Common Myna.
In addition there are a number of pages pointing to observations of species resident in Oman that are known to us from other parts of the world.

Birds spotted in specific locations

Currently lists exist of the birds spotted by us over extended time periods at the following locations:
SQU campus (50 km west of Muscat, Oman; August 2009-present)

More information

Here some more information about nomenclature, photographic equipment used by us, etc. For information about bird names please go to the BIRD INDEX.