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Algeria: Male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos minor ledouci at its nest hole in bamboo Bambusa macroculmis in Jardin d’Essai of El Hamma, Algiers.

Photo: Youcef Harik 2000

Algeria: Rose-ringed Parakeet Psittacula krameri at its nest hole, Jardin d’Essai of Hamma, Algiers. Photo: Youcef Harik

Rose-ringed Parakeet Psittacula krameri was seen in Algiers for the first time in 1984 and has been breeding there since 1995 at least. Its range throughout Algiers and its suburbs is expanding. It has been established that it is the African subspecies P.k.krameri which has been introduced (FELLOUS, A., MOULAI, R. & JACOB, J.P. 2005). Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos minor ledouci appears to be an unusual record for the city of Algiers.

In 2004, three pairs of Ferruginous Duck Aythya nyroca raised 3,5 and 8 young in a Saharan wetland near El Golea, and a pair of Marbled Teal Marmaronetta angustirostris raised three young in a wetland near Ouargla.

Algeria
Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata
Photo: O. Peyre and G. Durand

In August 1998, a colony of African Silverbill Euodice cantans was discovered in the central Algerian Sahara, at Abalessa, north-west of Tamanrasset. There are few previous records of the species in the Western Palearctic (FARID, B. 2001) . In May 1999, three pairs of Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata were breeding at an oasis called Tamentit, near Adrar, in the Algerian Sahara; this locality is situated 600 to 800 km south of the species’ regular breeding range. Whether this record represents a recent breeding range extension or is due to a lack of ornithological recording is unclear (MOALI, A. and ISENMANN, P. 2001) .