13 July 2022

Possible breeding of purple Heron - Jubail

Birding at Jubail is very slow as the summer has arrived and the temperatures are very hot (45 degrees Celcius). Land birds are very few and far between, so I spent most of the morning looking at the wetland areas. Here a few herons look like they may be breeding with immature, Black-crowned Night Heron, Little Bittern Striated Heron and Purple Heron all seen recently. All these herons have been suspected or proven to breed at this location, but Purple Heron was a little bit of a surprise. The adult was seen flying over at a slightly different location to the juvenile but within 100 metres. This is not conclusive breeding just circumstantial evidence but interesting nevertheless.