For many people, Al-Qanater Al-Khaireya, an area of parkland, gardens, and agricultural land some 22 km outside Cairo, is associated with school trips in search of pure air, picturesque views, walks in parkland, felucca boat rides, bike rides, and having fish for dinner.
But it is also the perfect place for birdwatching, especially in areas outside the sometimes crowded gardens.
A group of us, all keen to find out more about birdwatching, embarked early on a day trip to watch birds in Al-Qanater Al-Khaireya, as they are most active in the early hours of the day.
Thanaa Abdel-Ghani, a retired engineer and member of the group, said that we would likely have an interesting day bringing many new experiences.
“I love birds, but I don’t know much about them,” Abdel-Ghani admitted. “I used to watch migratory birds on trips to Fayoum, but I have not been able to devote as much time as I would have liked to watching them or reading about them or learning to identify different species.”
Our guide for the day, Alfred Saber, took us on a ride in a colourful boat to Al-Qanater Fall in a slipway from the Al-Qanater branch of the Nile.
“Spacious wetlands like these are suitable areas for resident and migrating birds, especially as they prefer quiet areas without large human populations. The area around the fall is one of the richest places for birdwatching in Al-Qanater, and you can see many kinds of water birds, especially fish-eaters,” Saber said.
When the boat reached the spectacular fall, the boatman stopped the engine to allow us to listen to the sound of water and birds.
We used binoculars to watch the many different species, including the famous Great White Egret, a resident species in Egypt, that is known among Egyptians as ‘the farmers’ friend’ for the help it gives to farmers, eating various insects in the soil. We also saw the Cattle Egret and Little Egret, two other kinds of resident Egret.
We saw the long beaked hoopoe, which can also be seen in other places in Egypt. Then there was the Grey Heron and the Purple Heron, as well as, unexpectedly, the Night Heron, which spends its day hiding between the branches of trees.
Herons are wading birds with slender legs, long necks, and long beaks with a sharp point used for catching fish.
Among migrating birds, we were able to spot the common kingfisher and the white throated kingfisher. Kingfishers are unmistakable and easy to spot because of their brightly coloured plumage and their habit of flying low over the water in search of fish.
The other migrating bird we saw was the Cormorant, which flies from Europe on its way to Africa and stops over in Egypt. It rests in Al-Qanater, then in Fayoum, and then in Aswan, before continuing on its journey. It is famous for its ability to catch fish from under water.
“In the old days, people used to use Cormorants to catch fish by tying one to a rope and then leaving it to dive under the water until it catches a fish. The fisherman would then haul the bird in and take the fish from its mouth, rewarding it with a smaller fish,” Saber said.
“This technique is so old that it was even used by the ancient Egyptians, as seen in fishing scenes recorded on the walls of a tomb in Sakkara.”
Saber took up birdwatching as a hobby when he was young, and later in life it became his profession along with tour guiding.
Although we managed to see a Night Heron, we were not lucky enough to see an owl. Several species of owls are resident in Al-Qanater, including the Pharaoh-Eagle Owl, as Saber explained.
Other species of animal we saw included a chameleon camouflaged in the branches of a tree. It changed its colour from green to brown when the boatman nudged it with a stick and forced the reptile to cling to it.
Saber would like to see more people engaging in birdwatching and learning more about the different species to be found in Egypt. He had just returned from a trip to Aswan, where he spent all his spare time with binoculars and a camera watching and taking photographs of birds.
There are other popular places for birdwatching in Egypt, he said, including Fayoum, Port Said, especially the Ashtoun Al-Gamil Nature Reserve, quiet areas of Maadi, and then Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh and other areas close to the Red Sea where migratory routes pass.
There are nine migratory routes for birds, also referred to as flyways, worldwide.
Thanks to its location between Europe, Africa, and Asia, Egypt is on the West Asian-East African flyway.
Birdwatching in Egypt is something that can be done throughout the year, with the country boasting over 500 species of bird. Two-thirds of these are migrants, and one third are resident and are to be found in Egypt all year round.
Egypt also has 34 bird reserves, areas that include wetlands, mountains, desert valleys, coastal areas, and marine islands. Each is suitable for different species of bird.
At the end of our birdwatching ride, our guide took us on another short boat ride to Quaratin Island, whose population work mainly in tending bananas and roses. We had an informative tour about the different kinds of bananas planted in Egypt.
Then we headed off for a stroll among the colourful rose beds and concluded our day in style with a typically Egyptian late breakfast of homemade feteer (a kind of flaky, layered pastry) with honey, molasses, cheese and cream, and strong black tea made by women living on the island.
Many of us took home some of the honey that the local people produce from beehives on Quaratin Island.
Al-Qanater Al-Khaireya is in the Qalyubiya Governorate to the north of Cairo where the Nile splits off into its Damietta and Rashid branches marking the beginning of the Nile Delta.
The name means “dams of welfare” and refers to dams built over the Nile in the time of Mohamed Ali in 1840 to build up water reserves and protect the Delta from floods.
Channels in the main dam distribute water to the west, centre, and east of the Delta. The dam itself is divided into two sections, one for the Damietta and the other for the Rashid branch of the Nile.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 20 February, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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