Pycnonotus barbatus (Desfontaine, 1789)

Length 19 cm. This medium-sized bird is soberly dressed in grey-brown with a black head and blackish tail and wings. It is renowned in Arab poetry for its flute-like song. The Common Bulbul lives in urban gardens, farmlands, or areas with trees and bushes such as orchards and palm groves. It usually occurs in pairs or family parties towards the end of the breeding season but may gather into loose foraging flocks during the winter. Its food consists largely of fruit from a wide variety of wild and cultivated trees and shrubs; also arthropods, nectar, flowers, and some seeds. It is a monogamous territorial bird. The nest is neat and strong, but often thin-walled; it is in the form of a cup of dry grass, rootlets, and small twigs lined with finer plant fibers and animal hair. Two or three eggs are laid and incubated for 12-15 days by the female. This is a common resident breeding bird found in the Nile Valley and Delta, the Suez Canal area, and the region of Gebel Elba.