Either Mangrove is a potentially very important natural mangrove lagoon west of Sabya in the southwest of the Kingdom on the Red Sea coast. It holds one of the only known populations of ‘Mangrove White-eye’ a little known white-eye that may be part of the Abyssinian White-eye complex or possibly an unknown species?
It is also a site where I found Collared Kingfisher last year, so I went back looking for the two species in June 2016. On arrival I saw a pair of Collared Kingfishers sitting in the mangrove trees and occasionally calling as they often do. The birds were not frightened by my presence and flew close by to catch crabs and small fish on a number of occasions.
Other birds on the water included Pink-backed Pelicans, with two fishing and four resting on a lagoon creek. A few Striated Herons were also fishing along the coast but little else apart from Indian Reef Herons. The mangroves held calling Mangrove Reed Warblers, Clamorous Reed Warblers and African Collared Doves but little else of note.
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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