Saudi Birding's March 2026 Socotra Tour
- May 2
- 18 min read
Updated: May 12
Owing to its high number of endemic flora and fauna, the Socotran Archipelago has been dubbed “the Galápagos of the Indian Ocean.” Indeed, the sheer number of life forms unique to the archipelago’s four main islands—Socotra, Darsa, Samha, and Abd al Kuri—puts it in a notable fifth after New Zealand, Hawaii, New Caledonia, and the Galápagos themselves among remote island chains with the highest rates of endemism.
While the bulk of these endemics are insects and plants, including the famous Dragon’s Blood Tree (Dracaena cinnabari), Socotra also hosts around 30 endemic reptiles and ten endemic bird species. It is the chance to see the latter that has put Socotra near the top of the list of the most exciting birdwatching destinations in Arabia.
You can imagine, then, the sense of anticipation and excitement as Saudi Birding’s first expedition to the Socotran Archipelago finally launched.
There was a stretch, however, when I worried the tour might not happen at all.
The conflict in Yemen, long settled into an uneasy status quo, suddenly took an unexpected turn. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, erstwhile partners in the anti-Houthi coalition, found themselves in indirect conflict over the UAE’s support of the Southern Transitional Council (STC). The STC, one of the main political factions in Yemen, is in many ways a revived relic of the former South Yemen, which once existed as an independent Marxist state, the only one the Arab world has ever seen.
Toward the end of 2025, STC forces moved into the Hadramout and Mahra regions near the borders with Saudi Arabia and Oman in an apparent bid to reclaim the territories that once constituted an independent South Yemen. The advance was widely believed to have taken place with tacit backing from the UAE, which had been supplying military equipment to STC forces.
For the Saudis, however, the move proved a bridge too far.
In a development that surprised many regional observers, Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against STC positions, driving their forces back out of Hadramout and Mahra. Even more striking was a reported Saudi strike on an alleged arms shipment from the UAE at the port where it was being unloaded. The confrontation ultimately led to the dissolution of the STC and the effective withdrawal of Emirati influence from Yemen.
These events had particular significance for Socotra.
Since 2017 the UAE had steadily expanded its presence on the archipelago. In 2020, Emirati backing helped the STC carry out a bloodless takeover of the island, displacing representatives of Yemen’s internationally recognized government. In the years that followed, the UAE reinforced both its political and military footprint on Socotra as part of a broader effort to project influence in the region. One of the clearest signs of this came with the construction of a military base and airstrip on Abd al Kuri Island, developments that effectively ended tourist visits to the island beginning in early 2023.
By early 2026, just months before our planned expedition, everything had changed.
Air Arabia, the UAE-based airline that had operated flights to Socotra from Abu Dhabi for years, suddenly lost permission to fly to the island. Tourists already in the region found themselves stranded while alternate travel arrangements were hastily organized.
For our group, the immediate consequence was that our scheduled flight to Socotra was cancelled.
The only viable option became Yemenia Airlines, which had begun operating a new route to the island via Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. With the internationally recognized Yemeni government reasserting authority over Socotra and Saudi Arabia now assuming a more prominent role in the region, Jeddah suddenly became the gateway to the archipelago.
We knew this shift was coming and were prepared to purchase new tickets if necessary. Still, it wasn’t until February 23, just three weeks before the tour began, that we finally secured seats on the flight, allowing those who had not yet done so to finalize their own travel arrangements to Jeddah.
The relief was immense but short-lived.
Just five days later, Israel and the United States launched the opening phase of a bombing campaign against Iran, and large portions of regional airspace abruptly closed. Overnight, air traffic across much of the Middle East was thrown into chaos.
At that point I faced an agonizing decision—whether to cancel the tour or push ahead despite the uncertainty.
For two weeks I monitored flights over Saudi Arabia almost obsessively using a flight-tracking app. Gradually a pattern emerged. While airspace farther east was affected by the conflict, western Arabia remained largely unaffected.
Flights continued to operate normally.
If my clients were still willing to make the journey, then I was determined to see the expedition through.
Island Impressions Socotra Birding Tour
First Bird of the Tour
Despite our worries over the Iran conflict and tales of lengthy delays and cancellations affecting travel to and from Socotra, our Yemenia flight proved uneventful—apart from the views. Two members of our crew had just come from Somaliland, and from the aircraft window we could see the coastline of Africa sliding by as we followed the tip of the Horn out into the Gulf of Aden.
After all the hand-wringing over whether the expedition would even happen, landing on Socotra and stepping straight onto the tarmac brought a massive sense of relief. We had made it.
Most passengers on the flight were foreign tourists from across Europe and Asia, mostly drawn to Socotra for its otherworldly landscapes. Despite how small the island is, we wouldn’t see any of them again until the flight home eight days later.
For we had birds to find, taking our crew more off the beaten path.
And the first bird of the tour? One I'd never in my life have expected to see perched on the tail fin of an Airbus A320. Yet there he was—a male Somali Starling (Onychognathus blythii)!
A Strong Start at Wadi Ayhaft
There are nine endemic birds found on Socotra proper—Socotra Buzzard, Socotra Scops-Owl, Socotra Warbler, Socotra Cisticola, Socotra Starling, Socotra Sunbird, Socotra Sparrow, Socotra Grosbeak, and Socotra Bunting. We saw six of them—the buzzard, scops-owl, starling, sunbird, sparrow, and grosbeak—at the very first stop of the tour—Wadi Ayhaft, a bird-rich canyon quite near the airport.
The highlight of day one was our encounter with Socotra Scops-Owl (Otus socotranus), several of which began calling just after sundown. This charming Socotran endemic has been found to be more closely related to Seychelles Scops-Owl (O. insularis) than to Arabian Scops-Owl (O. pamelae), its nearest congener.
Socotra Grosbeak (Rhynchostruthus socotranus) might also have been a contender for the day’s highlight if our views hadn’t been so painfully brief—and the only ones of the tour. Everyone in the group got onto a pair perched high atop a tree beside a clearing in the canyon, though only a lucky few managed to capture photographs of what is described as an otherwise common and widespread endemic. We made a determined effort to find more later in the week, but still came away scratching our heads—where had all the grosbeaks gone?
A Sobering Encounter
At that same stop we were soon joined by several children and teenagers from the nearby village in the wadi. Noticing our interest in birds, they asked if we wanted to see a “saqr,” the Arabic word for falcon. I politely declined, assuming they meant a captive falcon used for hunting.
When we returned to our vehicles after a futile attempt to relocate the grosbeaks, however, we found a rather forlorn raptor tethered to the ground. The bird in question turned out not to be a falcon at all, but a Socotra Buzzard—and one that looked decidedly stressed.
The episode was a sobering reminder of one of the pressures facing this island endemic. Although the Socotra Buzzard (Buteo socotraensis) is widespread across the island, it is not particularly common, with the total population thought to number fewer than 250 breeding pairs (Birds of the World). This range-restricted species is therefore currently listed as Vulnerable. While much of Socotra is now nominally protected within national parks and nature reserves, young birds are still sometimes taken from nests by locals who mistakenly believe they can be sold for falconry (Birds of the World). This may have been the case here.
Who’s That Odd-Looking Chicken?
Wait… that’s not a chicken. It’s an Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus).
Socotra boasts the highest concentration of this otherwise endangered vulture anywhere in the world. The birds can be found scavenging along beaches, picking through trash heaps around human settlements, and soaring high over the island’s rugged interior. Sure enough, every time we stopped for lunch during the tour, the vultures would appear—sometimes flying in from a distance—and linger nearby, patiently waiting to see if any scraps might come their way. They were welcome lunch guests, with far better table manners than the goats!
A few fun facts about them:
1. That orange color isn’t natural. The orange staining seen on some birds isn’t feather pigmentation at all, but the result of bathing in iron-rich soils. It’s thought to function as a form of sexual signaling—essentially the vulture equivalent of putting on makeup.
2. They can really pack it away. Egyptian Vultures have a distensible crop, meaning this food-storage sac above the stomach can expand dramatically after feeding. A conspicuously bulging crop—like the one visible in the photo below—indicates that the bird has recently eaten well.
3. They’re tool users. Egyptian Vultures are probably best known for their tool use. In parts of Africa they have been observed using heavy stones to crack open ostrich eggs.
The Dragon’s Blood Trees
Socotra is probably most famous for the Dragon’s Blood Tree (Dracaena cinnabari), one of the many endemic plant species found on the island.
The English name comes from the blood-red resin produced by the tree.
In Arabic the tree is known as dam al-akhawain (دم الأخوين), meaning “blood of the two brothers,” a reference to the legend of Cain and Abel.
In the Socotri version of the legend, the two brothers are named Samha and Darsa—names that today belong to the two smaller islands in the Socotra Archipelago. As the story goes, the first dragon’s blood tree grew at the spot where the two brothers battled to the death, echoing the theme of fratricide in the biblical tale.
In the Socotri language, the dragon’s blood tree is known as “aree’ib.”
A Sparrow by Any Other Name...
This striking fellow is one of two endemic sparrows found on the Socotra Archipelago—Socotra Sparrow (Passer insularis).
Socotra Sparrow is a ubiquitous presence on the main island, found as readily around human habitation as in the remote highland wadis.
During the tour, Abu Ali—our lead driver—taught me some of the Socotri names for the island’s birds.
In what seemed like a linguistic coincidence, the Socotri word for sparrow sounded remarkably familiar: “us-SPHAYR-roo.” I was incredulous, but Abu Ali insisted this was an old Socotri word and not a loan from English. To be fair, the Arabic word for sparrow, “us-SPHOOR” (عصفور), suggests a much more obvious connection between two Semitic languages.
Other names Abu Ali shared included “tuf-HAAN” for Socotra Bunting, “SHILL-hee” for Somali Starling, “she-ge-di-HAAN” for Socotra Scops-Owl, “nuh-HEE-muh” for Barbary Falcon, and “go-EE-ruh” for Sooty Gull.
Labuk ullah to Abu Ali for giving me my first lessons in Socotri. I hope to return someday and learn more about this fascinating language, which, sadly, is at risk of vanishing due to wider cultural and economic pressures in the region. One encouraging recent development, however, is the decision by the local government to begin teaching Socotri children their native language in school.
More Than Just Subspecies?
On Socotra there are several endemic races of more widespread species, such as Nubian Nightjar, Laughing Dove, Great Gray Shrike, and Long-billed Pipit.
While we had no luck with the nightjar, despite four night sessions during the tour, we did see the others in good numbers.
I was particularly struck by the subtle yet distinct morphological and vocal differences shown by the local race of Long-billed Pipit (Anthus similis sokotrae).
Not only did they appear longer-billed, but also brighter overall, with less marked underparts, lighter and browner upperparts, and more buff, less cinnamon in the tertial edging.
Their songs, which we heard at several locations around the island, immediately struck me as different. Sonograms of recordings I made show a low trill—sometimes down-slurred, sometimes up-slurred—frequently repeated throughout a bout of singing. While I need to investigate further, it strikes me as quite distinctive, especially in comparison with the taxa found on the Arabian Peninsula.
Sorting Starlings
On Socotra there are not one but two species of “red-winged” starling—the Somali Starling (Onychognathus blythii) and the endemic Socotra Starling (Onychognathus frater).
During the first two days of our recent tour, we found ourselves getting to grips with how to separate the males of one species from the males of the other, given their fairly close similarity. The females, by contrast, are much easier thanks to the gray hood of female Somali Starling.
Thankfully, I managed to capture video of both species side by side, as seen in the first clip here. The Socotra Starling on the right is clearly smaller than the Somali Starling on the left. It also has a shorter, more squared-off tail, whereas the Somali Starling’s tail is longer and more graduated at the tip. Bill shape and length are helpful as well: Somali Starling has a shorter but thicker bill than Socotra Starling. Voice can be useful in separating both species as well—Socotra Starling often gives a distinctive “pee-hoo” whistle that quickly became familiar during the tour.
Taken together, these morphological and vocal features made confident separation much less daunting.
That said, we did not often have the chance to compare them side by side. Somali Starling was ever-present throughout the tour, at all elevations and in virtually every habitat. Socotra Starling, on the other hand, was mostly seen only on the Diksam Plateau and in higher-elevation wadis. Our best views by far of the latter came at our lunch stop in Wadi Dirhur, near the famous Dragon’s Blood Tree stands of Firmihin Forest.
The starlings lingered while we ate, joining Somali Starlings, Socotra Sparrows, Egyptian Vultures, and the equally omnipresent goats in search of an easy meal.
Dude Looks Like a Lady
Socotra Sunbird (Chalcomitra balfouri) is one of the more fun and intriguing endemics we encountered on our recent Socotra tour.
What makes it so interesting? You could say the male Socotra Sunbird is a bit of a gender-bender.
Unlike most sunbirds, Socotra Sunbird is not sexually dimorphic. In fact, both males and females share plumage traits that, in other sunbird species, would typically be associated with the female. This is called monomorphism.
The birds were frequently seen feeding among flowering shrubs and small trees during the tour. This video appears to be the first publicly accessible footage of the species available online.
A Right Skulker
Not the easiest bird to photograph, owing to its typically skulking habits—as the video clip shows. But once it takes to the air, the Socotra Cisticola (Cisticola haesitatus) quickly gives itself away.
Its flight song, nearly identical to that of the Zitting Cisticola, is unmistakable and often the first clue to its presence. Like its more widespread relative, the bird rises above the vegetation in an undulating flight while delivering its distinctive song before dropping back into cover.
The species is common across Socotra in scrubby habitats, ranging from sea level up onto the Diksam Plateau, where this individual was found.
A Real Treat
Like the Socotra Cisticola, the Socotra Warbler (Incana incana) can be frustratingly difficult to observe well thanks to its typically skulking habits.
One of the Socotra Archipelago’s more common endemic birds, it can be found on scrubby slopes across much of the island. Despite being fairly numerous, its unobtrusive behavior often keeps it low in the vegetation. Seeing an individual perched and preening in the open like this was therefore a real treat.
Interestingly, the species is taxonomically related to the cisticolas—they belong to the same family, Cisticolidae—though the Socotra Warbler currently occupies its own genus and is the sole representative of that lineage.
The clips above represent one of the first publicly accessible video footage of Socotra Warbler available online.
The accompanying audio recording captures a contact call, one of the vocalizations most readily heard from this bird in the field.
Which White-eye?
For many years the Socotra White-eye (Zosterops socotranus) had been counted among the island’s endemic birds. More recent genetic research has complicated that picture. Birds on Socotra were long thought to be the same taxon as white-eyes found across the Gulf of Aden in northern Somalia, and on that basis the species lost its strictly endemic status.
However, further work suggests that the Somali population may in fact represent a separate species in the process of being described (Birds of the World). If confirmed, the Socotran birds could once again be considered endemic to the island.
Interestingly, the species still retains the common name Socotra White-eye, even though it is not presently regarded as restricted to the archipelago.
In the field, the birds struck me as subtly distinctive. White-eyes were common in the foothills and highlands, moving through vegetation in small flocks and often announcing their presence before they were seen. Compared with the Abyssinian White-eye familiar from Arabia, the Socotran birds appeared brighter overall, with striking yellow lores that sometimes wrap across the forehead and meet above the culmen, forming a bright facial contrast. Their vocalizations also seemed slightly different, though only subtly so.
Whether these differences will ultimately prove taxonomically significant remains to be seen. For now, the Socotra White-eye serves as a reminder that even on an island famous for its endemics, the boundaries between species are sometimes less clear-cut than they first appear (Birds of the World).
A Far-Flung Outpost at the Crossroads of Biogeographic Realms
Socotra’s birdlife reflects its position at the crossroads of the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Palearctic realms. Nowhere is the confluence of these influences more readily seen than at the many lagoons (khor in Arabic) dotting the island’s coasts. At virtually every wetland stop, Red-knobbed Coots (Fulica cristata), colonists from Africa, were constructing nesting mounds, while Indian Pond-Herons (Ardeola grayii), widespread on the subcontinent but now resident year-round on Socotra, stalked along the water’s edge.
Uncommon winter visitors and vagrants from almost any direction may turn up at these lagoons as well. At Khor Qalansiyah we encountered Pheasant-tailed Jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus), while at Khor Sirhan we found Pin-tailed Snipe (Gallinago stenura), both eastern visitors that have become more regular during the winter months. Also at Khor Sirhan we discovered a lone Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)—the photograph here digiscoped by Philip Hansbro. Listed as a vagrant in OSME’s Checklist of the Birds of the Socotra Archipelago, this observation represents the first record for Yemen in eBird and one of the most southerly occurrences of the species anywhere in the world.
During the dry months the lagoons can also be a good place to see Forbes-Watson’s Swift (Apus berliozi) coming in to drink. At Khor Sirhan we had a flock sweep in low overhead, allowing for phenomenal views of this regional specialty.
Trekking for Buntings
By the end of day two on Socotra we had found all but one of the main island’s endemics. Despite a few hours of searching, we failed to find Socotra Bunting (Emberiza socotrana)—a notoriously challenging species due to its relatively small population and poorly understood seasonal movements. The rains had apparently been poor that winter, and the resulting dry conditions may have confounded our efforts.
On day three, however, following up on some helpful gen from Licia Calabrese, we set out for Wadi Madieruh, a valley deeper into the Hajhir Mountains than the area we had searched the previous day. After arriving at the trailhead we were approached by a local villager who offered to guide us. Employing local guides is a common arrangement for visiting tour groups and an important way of spreading the economic benefits of tourism to the communities that live in these remote parts of the island.
Our guide set off up the trail barefoot.
What followed was a trek of nearly three kilometers up and over the ridge of a steep, rocky slope and down into the wadi below—textbook habitat for this endemic—a freshening stream running through it. He strode confidently from rock to rock while I picked my way along behind him in boots, a contrast captured in one of the short videos from the hike. At one point he even graciously offered to carry my scope and tripod for the remainder of the trek.
Sure enough, at about the 2.5-kilometer mark our trail guide suddenly stopped and pointed toward the stream’s edge.
A bunting!
All but one member of the group managed to get onto the bird before it flew off, but encouraged by the sighting we continued a short distance farther until we spotted a family group of buntings foraging just slightly upslope from us.
A thrilling photo session ensued now that our final endemic from Socotra proper was in the bag—thanks in no small part to the sharp eyes of our barefoot trail guide.
Most of our sightings came from within the wadi itself, but on the return hike another bird appeared higher up the mountainside at over 1,200 meters above sea level, notably higher than the area we had searched the previous day, a known nesting site. This suggested that the buntings had not descended to lower elevations that season, as had been speculated.
Expedition to Abd al Kuri
If the Hajhir Mountains posed the most challenging birding of the tour, the expedition to Abd al Kuri was easily the most adventurous.
On the fourth day of the tour we departed from Qalansiyah, a fishing port on Socotra’s western shore, bound for the remote island of Abd al Kuri—some 86 miles (138 km) away as the petrel flies and home to one of the archipelago’s most localized birds, the Abd al Kuri Sparrow (Passer hemileucus).
Strong currents in the channel between the islands meant that a direct course was not advisable. Instead, our boatmen charted an oblique route southwest toward Samha, one of the Two Brothers islands, before turning west for Abd al Kuri. Sensible though the route undoubtedly was, it stretched the crossing to roughly 93 miles (150 km) and nearly nine hours at sea, a far cry from the five or six hours originally promised. The embedded Instagram post below gives a taste of what the overall experience was like.
By the time we finally reached the island in the late afternoon, there was little daylight left for birding. A hurried search around the village of Kilmia—the island’s largest settlement—produced no sparrows, though one local resident assured us they were easier to find in the morning.
He was right.
At first light the next day we climbed into the back of a Toyota Land Cruiser pickup—apparently one of a small fleet donated to the islanders by the UAE government—and rattled back across the sandy tracks toward Kilmia. This time the sparrows proved far more cooperative. Several birds appeared around the houses, with some feeding in the courtyard of a welcoming local family who seemed thoroughly amused by our excitement over what, to them, was an everyday bird.
During this encounter I was able to obtain both video and audio recordings of the sparrows. To the best of my knowledge, these are likely the first publicly accessible recordings of the species available online.
With our primary objective accomplished, we took time to explore a beautiful stretch of coastline along the island’s northwest shore. On the return journey we encountered a Somali Fiscal (Lanius somalicus), perhaps the same individual that had been reported on Abd al Kuri in both 2021 and 2022.
Another detour to view a locally endemic succulent, Euphorbia abdelkuri, led us to another encounter with the sparrows, this time in their natural habitat—scrubby slopes and ravines across the island’s interior. Here we found a few males singing from the tops of scattered shrubs, which allowed me to capture my best audio recording of the morning.
One of the more surreal moments of the visit came when our driver used the island’s recently abandoned military airstrip, constructed by the UAE, as a convenient shortcut back toward camp. The strip of asphalt, cutting starkly across the otherwise barren landscape, amounts to the only paved “road” on the entire island.
Elsewhere along the coast rusting Soviet-era tanks still stand watch, reminders of the Cold War years when the island belonged to the People’s Democratic Republic of South Yemen—the only openly Marxist state the Arab world has ever known—and hosted a Soviet military presence.
The return journey to Socotra proved quicker but considerably rougher. A more direct route reduced the crossing to just over six hours, though the sea was far less forgiving and much of the trip back was spent bracing against spray and waves.
Fortunately, the monotony of the crossing was frequently broken by wildlife. Jouanin’s Petrels (Bulweria fallax) were abundant for much of the voyage, accompanied by good numbers of Brown Boobies (Sula leucogaster) and Masked Boobies (Sula dactylatra), along with numerous Red-billed Tropicbirds (Phaethon aethereus). Surprisingly, we recorded only a handful of Persian Shearwaters (Puffinus persicus) and doubles each of White-cheeked Terns (Sterna repressa) and Bridled Terns (Onychoprion anaethetus), fewer than expected for the area.
Marine life was equally impressive. Flying fish frequently skittered off ahead of the bow, sailing away from us sometimes up to over 50 meters, and we encountered a school of cownose rays, several Loggerhead Sea Turtles, and both Spinner and Indian Ocean Bottlenose Dolphins as well. One member of the group even reported seeing a Great Hammerhead.
After nine hours out and six hours back on open water, all for a bird found nowhere else on Earth, one conclusion seemed unavoidable.
It was, without question, the craziest thing I’ve ever done to see a bird.
By the end of the tour we had recorded just shy of our goal of 100 species. We found all of Socotra’s endemic birds and all but one of the endemic subspecies.
A large part of the tour’s success was due to our local logistics team, who adapted quickly to the demands of a birding tour and worked tirelessly to keep things running smoothly. Some even joined us on the long crossing to Abd al Kuri, sharing in one of the more memorable adventures of the trip.
To them I offer a heartfelt “Labuk ullah”—thank you in Socotri—for helping make Saudi Birding’s first expedition to the Socotran Archipelago such an unforgettable experience.
Interested in going birding with Saudi Birding? Click HERE to explore expert-guided bird tours in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere around the Middle East. We also offer custom tours tailored to your interests and preferred pace, combining targeted birding with other experiences tailored to your personal interests and preferences.
Comments