05 July 2020

Juvenile Egyptian Nightjars – Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area in early June I saw two juvenile Egyptian Nightjars. The plumage was very fresh with neat white fringed coverts forming neat lines across the wing. Adults would look much darker and don’t show the neat pale fringes. In flight there is no sign of wing moult which should be present in adult birds in June. This year birds were proved to have bred in Qatif in KSA and as these birds are old enough to fly they could have come from here or elsewhere such as Bahrain. These birds should now stay here until mid-September but their favoured areas are all currently flooded. The photos are not so good as light conditions are harsh by the earliest time we can arrive due to nighttime curfew for Covid-19.