Migration of demoiselle Cranes Across Saudi Arabia
Written and Photographed by Dr. Graham R. Lobley

mankind since ancient times. The spring and autumn migration of

Demoiselle Cranes over the city of Jeddah is the yearly highlight

of an impressive bird passage across western Saudi Arabia. This

article presents some current knowledge about the cranesí migratory

flyway across the Kingdom.

The seasonal migration movements of large soaring birds are usually

concentrated at fairly short sea crossings. There are several

major cities in the world where the passage of big flocks of large

bird species can be watched during migration time. Istanbul in

Turkey is one such place, in Autumn especially, when soaring birds

such as storks and eagles make the narrow sea crossing over the

Bosphorus to move between Europe and Asia. The migration of Demoiselle

Crane (Anthropoides virgo) over Jeddah is perhaps a comparable

spectacle; not least because of the rarity of the western population

of this species, but also because of the significant sea crossing

the birds undertake to cross the central Red Sea (approximately

220 km).

Until quite recently, very little was known about the migratory

flyway of the cranes across Saudi Arabia, although a significant

annual passage over Jeddah was recorded by birdwatchers from 1937

onwards. The traditional wintering range of the crane is centered

on the Gezira, between the Blue and White Niles in Sudan, south

of Khartoum. There, the species uses both dry acacia and river

margin habitats, where its diet consists largely of plant material,

especially grass seeds. The cranes are present in their African

winter quarters from October to February.

The spring migration from Africa moves northeast over the Red

Sea during the second half of March. Large but unquantified numbers

of cranes have been regularly recorded migrating over Port Sudan

and Jeddah. The migratory flyway across Saudi Arabia was not investigated

further until 1992 and 1993. Following observations of 1200 cranes

in the Haíil area of north central Saudi Arabia in the Spring

of 1986, ornithologists from the National Commission for Wildlife

Conservation and Development (NCWCD) have tried to improve our

knowledge of this threatened population of cranes. This effort

was pioneered by Peter Symens and Dr. Stephen Newton and included

a proposed annual monitoring scheme. The published results of

the 1992 and 1993 monitoring program, which included the help

of many field volunteers, indicated that more than 4500 and 6000