First record of Senegal Thick-knee 
Burhinus senegalensis in Arabia 
Peter Symens & Matthias Werner 
The shallow lake of Ain Wakhra is located in Wadi Mishrif near the 
Malaki Dam 420 58'E), some 20km east of Abu Arish, Jizan 
Emirate, Saudi Arabia, at the base of the foothills of the Asir mountains. 
It is isolated from the main reservoir of the dam by siltation. To the north 
and the east the lake is surrounded by Sorghum fields. To the south and 
west it is fringed by stands of Tamarix trees and here the hinterland 
consists of basalt hills and undulating basalt plains scattered with Acacia 
trees, interspersed by narrow sandy wadis with often dense Acacia scrub . 
At dusk on 1 February 1994 we were on top of one of these basalt hills 
overlooking the lake, when we briefly heard a thick-knee Burhinus sp. 
calling from a stand of Acacia scrub less than 100m from the water's edge. 
The calls resembled those of a Stone Curlew B. oedicnemus but were less 
rasping and less harsh. On leaving our observation point when it was 
completely dark, we noticed a thick-knee in the beams of the car's 
headlights on a track between the lake and the basalt slopes. As we 
slowly approached, the bird kept on running in front of the car and 
allowed us to observe it with 10 x 42 binoculars for about two minutes at 
distances down to five m. Eventually it flew away some 50 m and landed 
out of sight behind a dense stand of Tamarix trees. 
Field description 
Size and stnicture: Very similar to Stone Curlew but appeared slightly smaller, 
slimmer built and longer legged. 
Head: Crown and forehead pale brown-grey interspersed with numerous fine 
blackish streaks. Distinctive white eye-ring and superciliimi, as well as broad 
whitish line from gape to ear, bordered above and below by a narrow line of the 
same colour as the crown. Chin and throat whitish. 
Upperparts: Pale sandy grey-brown with thin brown-blackish shaft streaks. The 
closed wing showed a large whitish-grey panel on the coverts, bordered above 
by a narrow black line on the lesser wing coverts and below by a black sub- 
terminal band on the greater coverts. This panel was only sparsely intersjDersed 
with some dark fringes on the median and greater coverts. The rufous brown 
upper tail contrasted with the greyer back and mantle, and showed no distinct 
black or white markings except for some black on the outermost tail feathers. In 
flight the large whitish panel on the innerwing contrasted strongly with the black 
secondaries and black primaries. Two small, separated, well-defined, pure white 
spots were visible on the outer and inner primaries. 
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