OSME is now on YouTube
We have recently set up a YouTube channel to enable us to post video content that is relevant to the work of OSME and the birds of our wonderful region. The first video to be posted is...
Common Swifts in Iran – a Conservation Project
A guest blog by Abraham Shokouhi I became very curious about the Common Swift Apus apus pekinensis in 2013 when I attended training courses for eco-tourism guides and birdwatching tour guides. It looked a very interesting and...
The Turkestan Ground-jay in Uzbekistan
Guest blog by Robert J. Burnside I have been working in the Kyzylkum desert, in Uzbekistan, since 2013 on the ecology and conservation of the Asian Houbara with the University of East Anglia, BirdLife International and the...
OSME online Summer Meeting – programme & registration
OSME will be holding our first online Summer Meeting using Zoom on the 15th August. We have an exciting line-up of speakers from across the OSME region covering Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Socotra and central Asia. There will also...
OSME’s first online Summer Meeting – save the date!
Saturday 15th August: 10.30-12.45 (BST) One of the few positive things to come out of the global coronavirus pandemic is the rise of online webinars, meetings and conferences. Whether these will totally replace the face-to-face meetings that...
The OSME Region List of bird taxa v6.1
is now available here Version 6.1 follows the genus change in IOC10.2 of African Crake from Crex to Crecopis as predicted in v5.2 (Garcia-Ramirez et al 2020). A new species for the OSME Region was the arrival...
Update on the ‘Mangrove White-eye’ in Saudi Arabia
Guest blog by Jem Babbington The Abyssinian White-eye Zosterops abyssinicus occurs in the highlands of southwestern Arabia and eastern Africa in well-wooded areas above 1,000 m above sea level. Interestingly the discovery of mangrove dwelling White-eyes by...
The wonderful marshes of Khuzestan – an Iranian treasure
Guest blog by Keramat Hafezi Birgani My name is Keramat Hafezi Birgani, I was born in the city of Masjed Soleiman, where the first oil well was discovered in the Middle East. Masjed Soleiman lies in the...
Bird trapping in Cyprus – an update
Guest blog by Guy Shorrock In April 2020, BirdLife Cyprus published the autumn 2019 bird trapping survey. This suggests that an estimated 440,000 birds may have been killed within the survey area over the autumn. Whilst still...
Expansion of Namaqua Dove in the OSME Region
Guest blog by Łukasz Ławicki Expansion and range extension of Namaqua Dove Oena capensis in the OSME Region has been going on for several decades. But in the last decade, this process significantly increased in pace. In...
Checklist of the Birds of the Socotra Archipelago
Richard Porter & Ahmed Saeed Suleiman Ahmed Saeed Suleiman and I have updated the Socotra Bird Checklist following new discoveries this year. Also the resident white-eye has now been assigned endemic species status – Socotra White-eye –...
Youth development and Bird Camps update
Birds go on – birdwatchers on hold A message from Tomas Axén Haraldsson The current situation with the spread of the corona virus, and not least the consequences of all the emergency measures, has caused countries and...
Latest issue of Sandgrouse: free to download
Given the current extraordinary circumstances which have seen millions of people around the world confined to their homes, OSME has decided to make a pdf version of the Spring 2020 issue of Sandgrouse free for anyone to...
Birds of Lebanon, a Photographic Guide to 404 Species
By Ghassan Ramadan-Jaradi and Fouad Itani ISBN 9 789953 051062 In English Association for Bird Conservation in Lebanon Published in Lebanon Available in bookshops in Lebanon and from: www.BuyLebanese.com/browse.asp?pr=1055 Price $34 plus postage (eg. Plus $24.75 to...
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