I was in Africa in April/May 2025 on a birding tour, but I felt like I was Out of Africa. Was it Morocco’s architecture? The overall déjà vu recalling recent travels to southern Greece and Italy? The food? No, the reason was the alphanumeric codes!
Each time I mention an ecoregion in a blog or anywhere on this site, it comes with a six-part alphanumeric code, two letters followed by four numbers. See the About section for WWF’s definition of an ecoregion.
There are 825 ecoregions in the world, and each one has a unique name and code. So, how are their alphanumeric codes defined?
The first two letters refer to the biogeographic realm where the ecoregion is located. There are only eight realms in the world as defined by WWF:
AA Australasia
AN Antarctica
AT Afrotropical
IM Indomalaya
NA Nearctic
NT Neotropic
OC Oceania
PA Palearctic
The first two numbers of the alphanumeric code refer to the dominant habitat type found within the ecoregion. The same dominant habitat type can be found across multiple realms. There are 14:
01 Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
02 Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
03 Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests
04 Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
05 Temperate coniferous forests
06 Boreal forests / Taiga
07 Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas and shrublands
08 Temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands
09 Flooded grasslands and savannas
10 Montane grasslands and shrublands
11 Tundra
12 Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrublands
13 Deserts and xeric shrublands
14 Mangroves
The last two numbers of the alphanumeric code serve to simply list the ecoregions within a given biogeographic realm that share the same dominant habitat. For example, in the Palearctic realm the dominant habitat “Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub” has 22 ecoregions. So, the final two numbers of those ecoregion codes range from 01 to 22.
In Morocco, I traveled through all six of it’s ecoregions, each of which starts with PA for the Palearctic realm, encompassing Europe, Asia, and the Mediterranean. So indeed, biogeographically I was not in the Afrotropical realm, my usual Africa. Ahaa, for explaining the Out of Africa vibes!
Here are the six Moroccan ecoregions I visited, each with their own page on this site, including a map and further details. The first three are in the dominant habitat type 12, “Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrublands”. The others are in the dominant habitat types 05, 10 and 13.
PA1212: Mediterranean Acacia-Argania Dry Woodlands and Succulent Thickets
PA1213: Mediterranean Dry Woodlands and Steppe
PA1214: Mediterranean Woodlands and Forests
PA0513: Mediterranean Conifer and Mixed Forests (Temperate coniferous forests)
PA1010: Mediterranean High Atlas Juniper Steppe (Montane grasslands and shrublands)
PA1321: North Saharan Steppe and Woodlands (Deserts and xeric shrublands)
This diverse range of dominant habitat types explains why we managed to see an impressive 200 species (complete list). There were European species passing through on spring migration from their wintering areas in West Africa, widespread Mediterranean species, and a small number of Maghreb endemics. The Maghreb is the western part of the Arab world, basically northwest Africa, most easily visited in Morocco. The Maghreb endemics were naturally of the greatest interest to we birders. Because of the incredible abilities of Birdquest’s leader (Sjoerd Radsttak), and of several other top-notch birders in the group, we saw almost every Maghreb endemic that occurs in Morocco. My photos below are of the most photogenic species, i.e., the ones that sat still long enough to be photographed, with at least one from each ecoregion. Enjoy.
PA1212 (Mediterranean Acacia-Argania Dry Woodlands and Succulent Thickets)
PA1213 (Mediterranean Dry Woodlands and Steppe)
PA1214: Mediterranean Woodlands and Forests
PA0513 (Mediterranean Conifer and Mixed Forests)
PA1010 (Mediterranean High Atlas Juniper Steppe)
PA1321 (North Saharan Steppe and Woodlands)
We had the opportunity to see your live presentation, which was enlightening with your usual sprinkling of humor, but I equally enjoyed your blog. For those who love categorizing (librarians in mind) the first section of your blog is stellar. We all love individual birds for different reasons, but I have to agree the hidden night jars are phenomenal. I also love the magpie, similar to ours in Canada, but that blue eye patch is so blue and the eyes seem blue too (almost as blue as Paul Newman’s eyes) making it indeed handsome, and finally who doesn’t love a roller!
Your photos are excellent.
Excellent Douglas, another successful international birding trip with tremendous numbers of birds spotted. I have four favourites to comment on.
1) Common Bulbul that inspires poets, indeed. This poet was longing to return to his homeland and hear the bulbuls on the greens of Rabat. Not a colourful bird yet known for “charming and musical dawn song”, human friendly, and not messy like pigeons. In Morocco they are symbols of peace, joy and prosperity!
2) Eleonora’s Falcon. Who was Eleonora? A judge in 14th century Sardinia, who passed a conservation law to protect falcons and hawk’s nests from poachers. She was a falconer, having a significant aristocratic privilege, so an ulterior motive may have been to protect those birds for the sport. Out of 11,000 bird species worldwide, less than 50 birds are named after women. AOS is currently working at excluding eponyms for more descriptive bird names. In the future, Eleonora’s Falcon may become the Sardinia Falcon!
3) The Horned Lark is named ABA’s Bird of the Year, 2026. One highlighted reason is because it is globally widespread, found on five continents…how many biogeographic realms? The picture is perfect; standing upright, striking pose with chest puffed out and proud of the title for the year!
4) The Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. Beautiful picture of the male, and what a truly fascinating evolution. Feathers emerged 250 mya, believe to be for breeding displays and warmth (and still today), onto flight, then water resistant, and then, water retention! And it is a trait only the males have.
Wonderful Douglas, thank you again for your trip highlights and always I’m spurred into deep dives to learn more about these fascinating bird species.
Thanks so much for those comments! I always learn so much. I hope they don’t rename it Sardinia Falcon…
Morocco Birding Heaven (for Mothers)
Loved the first three pargraphs and ,
paragraphs starting : “In Morocco …, and,
“This diverse range of dominant habitat…”
The photos were so beautiful.
An amazing depiction of Morocco, birds and ecology, Doug. I read it all and enjoyed the technology even though I could not really appreciate the technology in the whole blog. In its way a work of art.
Well, I thought my favourite was going to be the red-knobbed coot (Koots of a feather) but I am going to have concur with you Douglas and go with that fabulous master of disguise, the Egyptian Nightjar and family. Wonderful!
Thanks Kirsty! I think your Dad would have been disappointed you didn’t go for the coot! All the best.