Matt Whitbeck and I arranged a 10-day bird trip to Morocco, adding a day in Portugal since our Air Portugal allowed a free layover with our ticket. We flew from Washington-Dulles Airport, through Lisbon to the Marrakech Airport. We arrived on Friday, April 24, and spent the night in a Riad near the historic Medina.
After spending the night at the Riad, and catching up on sleep after our red-eye flight, we woke early on Saturday morning, had an early Moroccan breakfast, and met our guide Mohammed to start our birding adventure. First stop was the High Atlas Mountains.
High Atlas Mountains (April 25-26)
The High Atlas Mountains is the highest range in North Africa, extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Algerian Border. Mount Toubkal is the highest peak at 13,671 feet. We were birding at around 10,000 feet.
Our target species was the Crimson-winged Finch, a high-elevation specialist found on barren landscape such as rocky slopes. Two distinct subpopulations exist, with one found in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains, and the other ranging from Turkey, Pakistan, into the Western China. We spent a couple of hours before lunch searching for this species, but no luck. After taking a break for lunch, we returned and spent more time. Finally we spotted them high on the slopes. Eventually, they worked their way down the slope, ending up by the side of the road where they picked through a pile of walnut and almond shells discarded by some vendors who sold shelled nuts in the parking lot.
We saw several other species while searching for the Finches. Here are a few of them.
After a full day of birding, we stayed at a hotel in the foothills of the High Atlas Mountain. The next day we would be traveling east, transversing the High Atlas over the Tizi-n-Tichka Pass toward the high steppes of Boumalne du Dades.