Confirmation of Acrocephalus scirpaceus avicenniae (Aves: Acrocephalidae) from mangroves on the Red Sea coast near Jazan, southwest Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Members of the Eurasian (or Common) Reed Warbler complex, Acrocephalus scirpaceus, are widespread across much of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. With its relatively complex taxonomy, the identity of several local (and sometimes remote) populations remains somewhat unresolved. In Saudi Arabia, populations of reed warblers were first identified in mangroves at Yanbu’ on the Red Sea coast in 1984, with several subsequent records up to 900 km further south toward the Yemen border. We took morphological data from 51 individuals and genetic material from three individuals captured near Jazan in southwest Saudi Arabia. Both genetic and morphometric data confirmed that these birds belong to the taxon A. scirpaceus avicenniae, sometimes referred to as the Mangrove or Red Sea Reed Warbler.

Keywords:

• Avicennia marina
• reed warblers
• molecular phylogeny

Acknowledgements

JB, CB and AA thank Saudi Aramco for supporting the field work for this project and Phil Roberts for field assistance. MS is grateful to Urban Olsson for providing the sequence aligmnet from their study. GMK and HS were able to examine relevant museum material thanks to the kindness of Mark Adams, Hein van Grouw and Robert Prys-Jones (Natural History Museum, Tring), and Till Töpfer (Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.