Watching Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) is a must for any birdwatcher visiting Morocco. Only two small populations of this species, listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN 1, remain in the wild. Little more than 100 breeding pairs live in western Morocco 2 and only a handful of birds have been rediscovered in Syria 3 in 2002.
To protect the breeding birds, the exact locations of the colonies in Morocco are kept secret to the public. However, birds can be watched well at feeding sites in the Souss-Massa National Park or at the mouth of river Tamri, north of Agadir.
I visited the latter on my recent trip to Morocco with A. & M. Tiefenbach. We found the birds straightaway, about 40 adults and immatures, resting at the shore of the small estuary, formed by the river flowing into the sea. For the well-being of the birds, we didn’t approach, but waited for them to approach us, flying up to the sandy slopes in the afternoon, where they regularely feed and from where we were watching. We spent a half day there, watching and photographing the rarest bird we had ever seen – not an easy task! Although the birds seemed familiar with people watching them, it was hard to follow the restless flocks, constantly walking through the bush-covered sand-dunes, rarely giving good, direct views. The ibises fed on insects like large bugs, which they were tearing out of the sand. More on the conservation of Bald Ibis in Morocco: http://northernbaldibis.blogspot.com
Absorbed in these precious observations, we started to think about where to sleep only when it was already dark – and decided to set up our tent near the village of Tamri. Not be best decision, as it turned out that two guys tried to get into our car for hours, while we were sleeping just beside it. We finally woke up (and chased them away) by their noises and touches, when they apparently tried to find the key of the car inside our tent. Creepy…
