A look back at some birds of Jordan…

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be sitting a lot today, in cars, airports, and airplanes, so we have to go back to the archives for pictures. Plus, I did a terrible job of reviewing the amazing sights we saw in 2025, so here’s a look back at some highlights from Jordan.

When we got to the Dead Sea, I was thrilled to get another chance to see common hoopoes. We have seen hoopoes before, in Malawi, which I believe would make them African common hoopoes, but since I read that Jordan is technically on the Asian continent, perhaps these are Eurasian common hoopoes. I did ask, but it wouldn’t say.

A little less exotic-looking, but still dramatic with a black head and white eye-ring are the white-spectacled bulbuls (Pycnonotus xanthopygos).

I’m always fascinated by sunbirds, who have evolved to play the role of hummingbirds in Eurasia and Africa, and we’ve seen them before, in Malawi and Comoros, but here’s my first Palestine sunbird (Cinnyris osea).

Another bird we saw first in Comoros, is the bee-eater, specifically the Madagascar bee-eater, but in Jordan we got to see the blue-cheeked bee-eater (Merops persicus).

We have to go back further to find our first lapwing, to South Holland where I learned that there is such a bird as a northern lapwing, and Jordan provided an alternative once again in the form of this spur-winged lapwing (Vanellus spinosus) at the fabulous Aqaba Bird Observatory.

We get martins, the purple variety, right in our own backyard, at Lakeshore State Park, but of course, the ones in Jordan have evolved to thrive in the desert, so here’s a pale crag-martin (Ptyonoprogne obsoleta) at Wadi Rum.

Finally, a visit to Jordan just wouldn’t be complete without seeing its national bird, the Sinai rosefinche (Carpodacus synoicus), and here’s one at Wadi Rum. Thanks again to Anne for making this whole trip possible, and if you ever get the chance to visit Jordan yourself, I hope you jump at it. We found it to be just wonderful.

If things go well today, I should be back in Estabrook tomorrow morning, and I see it is forecast to be windy there, so who knows what I’ll see, but I’ll be sure to let you know.