Whilst birding the Sarrar area of the Eastern Province Phil Roberts and I found two Black Scrub Robin Cercotrichas podobe a species that has only been recorded five times in the Eastern Province making this sixth record as posted about earlier.
Amazingly we then found a third bird some kilometres further down the main road in some woodland around a large pivot irrigation field. After posting the first post and informing Arnold Uy he mentioned that they are commonly seen in the farms around Al Hassa so it looks almost certain they have now colonized the Eastern Province and are spreading west.
It will be interesting to see how long it is until I see one in Dhahran. There current status as a vagrant to the province clearly needs updating.
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.
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