14 
BREEDING BIRDS ON SOME RED SEA ISLANDS OFF NORTH YEMEN 
Mike Evans 
Introduction 
Almost nothing is known of the ornithology of the Red Sea islands off the 
North Yemen coast, since they lie in a politically sensitive area and 
access to them is highly restricted. However, British cartographic survey 
parties visited the islands off Al Luhayyah in 1977 and 1979; N. R. 
Phillips accompanied one of the visits in the latter year and published 
some bird observations resulting from this (Phillips 1979). 
For the benefit of future investigators, this paper summarises the 
breeding bird data in Phillips (1979) and that obtained from 
correspondence with two of the British surveyors, Frank Preston and Ivan 
Adair (Preston 1979a, 1979b; IA in litt . 2 May 1987), together with 
information about the islands themselves. 
Background 
The area visited by the survey team is shown in Figure 1; it stretches 
from Buhays in the north to Kamaran in the south and as far as Kitamah. 
Most but not all of the islands in this area were visited; descriptions of 
16 islands are provided in appendix 1, taken from Preston (1979a & b) . 
Most islands are low, flat and sandy, rising only a few metres above sea 
level, but several are formed from upraised coral and are higher. 
Vegetation is sparse on all islands, with thin grass and low scrubby 
bushes ( Suaeda? ) ; there is very little mangrove vegetation and that only 
about 30 cm high. Most of the islands have a fringing coral reef, and 
usually also have a sandy beach allowing access, at least at high tide. 
Breeding birds 
