17 May 2022

Shrikes still passing - Jubail

As the previous week I started seeing shrikes as soon as we got to the location and by the end of the day we had seen five different species (Red-backed Shrike, Turkestan Shrike, Daurian Shrike, Masked Shrike and Lesser Grey Shrike) with some birds looking like freshly arrived migrants. The make up of the shrikes was slightly different to last week as I saw 87 Red-backed Shrike, one Turkestan Shrike, one Daurian Shrike, one Masked Shrike and two Lesser Grey Shrikes. This is the second largest number of Red-backed Shrikes I have seen in a day here in Saudi Arabia and they were basically everywhere you looked. It was a great days birding with so many shrikes and other migrants and the close views made it even more rewarding.

Red-backed Shrike

Red-backed Shrike
Masked Shrike