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This booklet showcases 50 of the island’s species, including the endemic species and those with populations of international significance. Each species is given a page with a single image and a few sentences of text. While the book is unlikely to be the sole reference used by anyone visiting the island, it nonetheless gives a pleasant, local take on the birds breeding there, including local statuses of species that are otherwise widespread in Arabia and whose Socotran populations often get glossed over. 

Also, of interest to any visiting birders, the book covers ten of the best sites on the island, including coordinates and tips on finding the birds that occur there. 

Sadly, visiting birders are likely to be in short supply on Socotra these days. The island was historically accessible only via a flight from Sana’a or by boat, but Yemen’s tragic – and ongoing – civil war put a stop to domestic flights, while pirates operating out of East Africa make arrival by sea a risky operation. For a short time, flights flew once a week directly from Abu Dhabi to Socotra (with the island remaining out of the war) but, with wider conflict flaring once again in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden recently, those flights appear to have been halted. Let’s hope, for the sake of the people and the unique wildlife in this corner of the world, that peace returns soon. 

Stephen Menzie