Twelve Black-throated Thrushes in Deffi Park - Jubail

After finding four Black-throated Thrushes at Deffi Park, Jubail on 20 January I went back a week later to see if I could get better photos and see if anything else had turned up. On arrival, at first light, I saw plenty of Song Thrushes feeding around under the trees and in with them a least three Black-throated Thrushes. As I stayed and looked around more I counted more and more birds and finally ended up with twelve.

This is an unprecedented number in recent years and made an amazing sight with the twenty or so Song Thrushes and two Redwings also present. Photography is difficult as light is poor in the early morning, they generally stay in the shade and the birds are constantly disturbed by walkers later on in the day, but occasionally they would come out into more open areas.

There has been a major influx of this species into Arabia with 20+ birds seen in Qatar in late December where there had only been one previous record and others in the UAE, Bahrain and Oman.

Black throated Thrush — Black-throated Thrush

Black throated Thrush1 — Black-throated Thrush

Black throated Thrush2 — Black-throated Thrush

Black throated Thrush3 — Black-throated Thrush

Black throated Thrush4 — Black-throated Thrush

Black throated Thrush5 — Black-throated Thrush

Black throated Thrush6 — Black-throated Thrush

Black throated Thrush7 — Black-throated Thrush

Black throated Thrush8 — Black-throated Thrush

Black throated Thrush9 — Black-throated Thrush

Jem Babbington

Jem Babbington is a keen birder and amateur photographer located in Dhahran, Eastern Saudi Arabia where he goes birding every day. Jem was born in England and is a serious local patch and local area birder who has been birding for almost forty years and has birded in more than fifty countries. Jem is learning to ring birds in Bahrain as a perfect way to learn more about the birds of the area. Saudi Arabia is a very much under-watched and under-recorded country.