Whilst ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl on 8 January with Nicole we trapped and ringed a male and two female Spanish Sparrows. This is the first time either Nicole or I have ringed the species and made two new site species for the day after the Jack Snipe. I had seen a small group of […]
Tag: saudi arabia
A retrapped and returning Red-spotted Bluethroat – Sabkhat Al Fasl
Whilst ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl on 8 January I trapped a male Red-spotted Bluethroat that we had previously trapped in January 2014. This bird had presumably been back to its breeding grounds in the far north and then returned to spend its winter in exactly the same small area of Sabkhat Al Fasl as […]
Jack Snipe a new ringing species for the site – Sabkhat Al Fasl
Whilst ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl on 8 January I trapped and ringed a Jack Snipe, a species that we had not ringed previously at the location. The Jack Snipe is an uncommon winter visitor to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia where it is normally found in marshy areas away from the coast from […]
Arabian Green Bee-eater – A new Arabian endemic?
The Handbook of Birds of the world have just split Arabian Green Bee-eater from Green Bee-eater. Philothrus cyanophrys Cabanis and Heine, 1860, Arabia = mountains of Al Qunfudhah, southwestern Saudi Arabia. Usually treated as conspecific with M. viridissimus and M. orientalis, but differs from both in its very short stub-ended central tail feathers; bright blue […]
NCT Stonechat – Sabkhat Al Fasl
A number of Stonechat have been seen at Sabkhat Al Fasl in recent weeks with all the ones I have seen appearing to be European Stonechat. I saw a male bird with a very white rump patch and plenty of white extending down the outside of the tail in a Wheatear type tail pattern. This […]
Highest ever count of Pied Kingfishers in Saudi Arabia – Sabkhat Al Fasl
As mentioned in a previous post there appears to have been a significant influx of Pied Kingfishers into the eastern part of Arabia in late October and early November 2015 with birds seen in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait as well as Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia there was a single female at […]
Citrine Wagtail – Sabkhat Al Fasl
When birding at Sabkhat Al Fasl 20 November 2015 with visiting birder Edward Pollard we found at least two Citrine Wagtails Motacilla citreola. This species was until the last few years a scarce winter visitor to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, but more birds are now being seen making it an uncommon winter visitor […]
The first male Pied Kingfisher of the autumn – Sabkhat Al Fasl
As mentioned previously there has been a major arrival of Pied Kingfishers into Eastern Arabia this winter including a minimum of ten birds at Sabkhat Al Fasl. All the birds photographed and the one seen by me have been females with this bias towards females also occurring with Common Kingfishers at this location. On 15 […]