16 December 2015

Red-breasted Flycatcher type near Zulfi – Bird records by Mohammed Al Mohatrish and Masur Al Fahad

Mansur Al Fahad sent me an e-mail recently saying his friend Mohammad Al Mohatrish photographed a Red-breasted Flycatcher type bird east of Zufi in an area of small acacia trees. It is difficult to tell much from the photos but the date would make it more likely to be a Taiga Flycatcher recently split from Red-breasted Flycatcher but good views of the tail, underparts and tertial edges would be needed for positive identification. Hopefully Mohammad can go back and look again as Taiga Flycatcher would be a new species for Saudi Arabia. Mohammed has kindly allowed me to use his photos of the bird on my website for which I thank him and I also thank Mansur for letting me know about the bird.