The Birds of Bahrain

Jake puts out the 18 kg sack of Millet every Friday at 6 am and tops up their water

One of the things that amazed me in my 11 years in Bahrain was the number and variety of birds. I started buying sacks of millet and feeding them every Friday morning. Word spread fast ( did someone share the news on Twitter I wonder?!) and soon we had Maya birds ( very tiny), sparrows, Pigeons and then the Doves from the Park arrived. We had birds that could not fly, Birds that sounded like Pubic hair in Tagalog ( Bulbul) and some very musical and noisy birds ( Mynah birds).

The Francolins of Awali

As I posted their pictures on Facebook so people wrote from all over the world ( okay, Just South Africa) telling me what they were called ( Thanks Jeannine for pointing out some of my birds were not Pheasants!) . My visitors would also tell me about different birds, so Julz introduced me to the Maya bird. Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I bought a coffee table book on the "Wildlife of Bahrain" by Dr, Mike Hill so I could find out more.

Some of the beautiful Doves from Princess Sabeeka Park

I learnt that Bahrain is on the migratory route for many species and so we often have beautiful pink Flamingo's in our winter months, for example. Whilst the bird food costs 6 bd a week and I have to go to Jidhafs to collect it once a month its worth every dinar for the hours of pleasure watching the birds come and go in the garden. ( I can just hear my brother , Richard, saying "You wasted 3,542 BD on bird food, that could have paid for a car")

The pretty coloured small birds are called Maya according to Julz

As it gets very hot in Bahrain we also have two washing up bowls of water which we refill daily ( they get through about 3 liters of water a day) and get cleaned weekly by Jake as they tend to poo and pee in them as well ( and sometimes bath which is fun to watch)

Our latest red water bowl which Corleen got at Manazel

I used to have cats ( 7 at the peak, who all adopted me) and now two of my neighbours have cats and often I will look out to see why there are no birds and the reason is clear, a big ginger cat hiding under the Calachuchi. I think the score is cats 5, Birds 0 so far, but having lost 7 cats to stray dogs I guess things even up in the end.

Jake brings the next load of bird food from the car

The amazing thing is that all the birds arrive at different times and on different days, sit in different trees and plants waiting for the coast to be clear and then eat from different parts of the circle of Millet. On Thursday a few birds come to see if I put the Millet out a day early ( I used to put a little every day but as the bag is heavy and my hip got worse I just left it for Former Jake on Friday). As soon as the sun rises on Friday the birds sit on the roofs of my house, Alpesh's and Matthews and on all the lamp posts looking out for Jake to arrive, then they watch as he puts out the millet and changes their water and then they come flying in to eat, until my gardeners arrive and start watering , when they fly away again until they have finished. When it gets too hot they leave , and return in the afternoon. The Doves always sit by my bedroom window, the pigeons at the back left and the Maya and sparrows back right.

The Francolins arrive last and dig for the hidden Millet

The Maya sit in the Bougainvillea at the back, while the pigeons sit in the Calachuchi. There used to be two but we sold one and they got very confused, so we had to move the other one over and put another plant in the front garden!

There is always more millet on the right

Slowly each day the millet goes, first on the left as you look out the window, so by Wednesday there is only millet on the right of the circle so then all the birds move over there. I guess there are more places for the cat to hide there so they are more cautious. the Francolins arrive last , on Thursday and dig out the millet from all the hidden spots!

If you look closely you can see the Maya in the Bougainvillea

The birds also love hiding in the shade under the garden furniture and some weekends in the afternoon I see maybe 20 pigeons sitting on the cross bars under the benches there. Its like they need a rest from flying for the afternoon and a little siesta in the shade.

The benches, tables and chairs where the birds rest in the shade underneath

By far the noisiest, and most interesting to watch are the grey Francolins , who have taken over Awali, bringing up their young here. You often see whole families of them crossing the road ( they are not very good at flying so tend to walk) and then they come up my path and walk onto the grass and start scratching for the buried food.

The Francolins, on Thursday, searching for the Millet all the other birds missed

Usually one will arrive first on the roof, assess if its safe and how much food there is and then let out a piercing call to his family and friends to come to house 775B for a millet party, and soon they all come waddling down the street. I always try and take photos and put them on my Facebook as my friend Jeanette, who used to live in Awali, is a big fan of theirs. They have their haters as well and I had to block Martin Peters for suggesting they would be nice served with cranberry sauce. Not on my watch, pal! One of the other things they love to do is sit under the electrical drum which mysteriously appeared in my garden one day , and eat the green plant that hangs down from it!