Recently I was in Bani Saad and stopped along the roadside at a nice looking area of market garden fields with crops. This area had once held Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak where birds were seen sitting on a roof in Bani Saad but unfortunately I have never seen them in the built up areas.
I did see a few good birds including a couple of Long-billed Pipits on one roadside bluff and nearby a few Cinnamon-breasted Buntings. The best bird seen, however, was a dark phase Long-legged Buzzard seen flying over.
This phase is much commoner in the west of the Kingdom than in the east and are always good to see. Other species seen included Eurasian Hoopoe, Palestine Sunbird and Tristram’s Starlings.
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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