The First Siberian White Cranes Grus leucogeranus in Jordan

Nashat A. Hamidan

ON2 FEBRUARY 2001, NAH, Jihad Ahmad, Mahdi Qatrameezaq and Dr Zuhair Amr visited Qa' Khanna, a seasonally flooded mudflat35 km north-west of Azraq, in the Eastern Desert of Jordan. While driving the edge of the flooded mudflat, NAH and JA saw three large birds roosting alone in shallow water near the edge of the qa'. They were clearly cranes, but the birds were white, not grey! Through 8x binoculars at a range of c. 200 m, they were quickly identified as cranes, rather than Spoonbills Platalea leucorodia, and further observation identified them as adult Siberian White Cranes Grus leucogeranus.

Description

They were huge, larger than Common Crane Grus grus, with which the observers are familiar. Bill dark red, face red extended over the frontal two-thirds, and legs also red. The birds were unringed. After ten minutes, the observers approached to within c. 100 meters, when the group took flight without calling. In flight, the primaries were observed to be black and the upper third of the breast was rusty on all three birds, but their white bodies were otherwise unmarked. The birds were not seen thereafter.

Discussion

Although this is the first authenticated record of the species in Jordan (having been accepted by the Jordan Bird Records Committee), there is some evidence to suggest that Siberian White Crane formerly occurred irregularly at Qa' al Azraq. Jihad Ahmad, a ranger with the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, from Azraq, observed white cranes, known by the common Arabic name 'hermel', there in the 1970s, but not since.

The conservation status of Siberian White Crane is considered Critical (BirdLife International 2000) with the western population consisting of at most 14 individuals, wintering at Fereidoon Kenar and Ezbaran on the southern Caspian Sea coast(Iran) since 1978, and breeding in Tyumen District, in Russia (Sadeghi-Zadegan 1999). In 2000/01, there were two(possibly three) groups each of three Siberian White Cranes in Iran. These birds use the Volga Delta as a stopover on spring (late March to mid-April) and autumn migration (August-September, sometimes later; Rusanov et al. 1998), as the wildfowl that winter in Azraq are also thought to do (Nelson 1973).

Contacts: Nashat A. Hamidan, Central Ecologist, The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, P. O. Box 6354, Amman 11183, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.