The Blister Beetles (Coleoptera:Meloidae) are global distributed insects except for New Zealand and the Antarctic region and are also called Oil Beetles. The species seen near Bani Saad wasMylabris calidathat has a distribution in central Asia (east to China and Korea), Caucasus and Transcaucasia, southern Balkan Peninsula, Near East, Levant and Arabian Peninsula and northern […]
Author: 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.
First Autumn European Turtle Dove – Jubail area
The European Turtle Dove is a long-distance migrant breeder across much of central and southern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, wintering mainly in the Sahel zone of Africa. The species is in serious decline because of loss of suitable habitat in both the breeding and non-breeding range, unsustainable levels of hunting […]
Yemen Rock Agama – Wadi Grosbeak
The Yemen Rock Agama occurs in northern Yemen and adjacent Saudi Arabia, but the limits of its distribution in Saudi Arabia are currently not well known, although I have seen it as far north as Bani Saad, where these individuals shown below were taken. It occurs from around 2,000 to 3,000 metres above sea level […]
Migrants passing – Jubail area
The last few weeks a few more migrants have been passing through with plenty of warbler seen. Most have been Eurasian Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat and Barred Warbler but also a few Eastern Olivaceous Warbler have been seen and one or two Asian Desert Warblers. Wheatears have also arrived with Black-eared and Pied being the most […]
Fairy Mantis – Tanoumah
There are a number of different mantis species in Saudi Arabia and when I was birdwatching in Tanoumah with Phil Roberts I found a Fairy MantisOxyothepis nilotica. It was not easy to photograph with the below photos the only good one I got. I have only seen this type of mantis once before in Saudi […]
Arbabian Spotted Eagle Owl young – Tanoumah
Whilst in Tanoumah in June I managed to see and photograph an Arabian Spotted Eagle-owl. I went back to the same area in July and at another location about two kilometres away I saw another bird perched on a wall of a partly built building. On getting out of the car the bird could be […]
Desert Locust – Tanoumah
The Desert Locust Schistocerca gregaria situation can form plagues and threaten agricultural production in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, something it has done for centuries. The desert locust is potentially the most dangerous of the locust pests because of the ability of it to form swarms and to fly rapidly across great distances. I […]
Egyptian Nightjar – Khafrah Marsh
Whilst birding Khafrah Marsh south of Jubail, Phil Roberts and I found ten Egyptian Nightjars in various areas of the site. Birds were initially seen sitting under small bushes with others flushed as we walked through the vegetation. Birds here were much less confiding then those seen in other areas of Jubail, but I got […]