Flock of 30 Bimaculated Larks - Jebal Hamrah

Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah pivot irrigation fields recently with Phil Roberts, we came across a flock of up to thirty Bimaculated Larks Melanocorypha bimaculate on the stony area around the pivot field. The birds were on the edge of the field in with a group of Greater Short-toed Larks and Eurasian Skylarks. We had planned our trip to get to the location at first light to get good light for photographing any larks we could find as the light deteriorates very quickly as the sun rises. We looked carefully at all the Bimaculated Larks we could see in the hope that a Calandra Lark may be amongst them but failed to turn up anything looking good for that species. Our photos of birds on the ground and in flight showed some of the Bimaculated Larks had what appeared to be pale training edges to the wing, but lacked the black underwing. The pale edges to the flight feathers were caused by the strong light. The species apparently breeds in the Harrat al Harrah Reserve and is otherwise a scarce or uncommon passage migrant mainly in March and April as well as October and November throughout the Kingdom. Most records are from the Riyadh area with very few from the Eastern Province although Phil and I saw a flock of 40 in a pivot irrigation field near Nayriyyah 14 March 2013, eight birds in a nearby pivot field 9 March 2018 and a single bird at the same location 30 November 2018. Interestingly a few of the birds were singing from exposed rocks and also song flighting which we have not recorded before when seeing the species in Saudi Arabia. The species is not known to winter in Eastern Saudi Arabia but the fact we saw birds in the same fields at end of November and early February of the same winter suggest they may well winter here. 

Bimaculated Larks – Jebal Hamrah

Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah pivot irrigation fields recently with Phil Roberts, Phil located a Bimaculated Lark Melanocorypha bimaculateon the stony area aroud the pivot field. The bird was on the edge of the field in with a group of Lesser and Greater Short-toed Larks, but flew almost immediately. We moved to where it had landed and refound the bird. Knowing a Calandra Lark had been recently seen in Kuwait we tried to get some photographs to eliminate the chance of it being that species. In flight there was no sign of the required white trailing edge to the wing and a few flight shots seemed to back this up making the bird a Bimaculated Lark. The light was poor by the time we located the bird so the photos are not the best. The species apparently breeds in the Harrat al Harrah Reserve and is otherwise a scarce or uncommon passage migrant mainly in March and April as well as October and November throughout the Kingdom. Most records are from the Riyadh area with very few from the Eastern Province although Phil and I saw a flock of 40 in a pivot irrigation field near Nayriyyah 14 March 2013 and eight birds in a nearby pivot field 9 March 2018.

Bimaculated Larks – Jebal Hamrah

Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah pivot irrigation fields recently with Phil Roberts, I came across a Bimaculated Lark Melanocorypha bimaculata. The bird was on the edge of the field in with a very large group of around three hundred Greater Short-toed Larks, but flew almost immediately. We moved to where it had landed and refound the bird with two more. After much moving around and trying to relocate the birds to get some photographs to eliminate the chance of any of them being Calandra Larks, a species that has been present in Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE this winter, we eventually decided there were eight birds present. The species apparently breeds in the Harrat al Harrah Reserve and is otherwise a scarce or uncommon passage migrant mainly in March and April as well as October and November throughout the Kingdom. Most records are from the Riyadh area with very few from the Eastern Province although Phil and I saw a flock of 40 in a pivot irrigation field near Nayriyyah 14 March 2013.

Some bird records from the Dibdibah Plains from the 1980’s - Bird records by Cliff Peterson

The following are some more bird records by Cliff Peterson who birded Saudi Arabia in the 1980’s. These are from the stony desert in the northern part of the Eastern Province. I personally have not seen any of these species with the exception of Bimaculated Lark, a species Phil and I found a flock of in a large Pivot irrigation field in spring 2013.

Bimaculated Lark – Seen on the Dibdibah during the winter, a good place to go to bag several of the unusual larks.  We counted 300 one December.  I did find this species once in Wadi Nisah in February.

Dunn's Lark - Again, the Dibdibah during winter has the highest probability of producing this species. However, this image is one of 60 that we located while camping at Hamra Judah.  They are nomadic: there had been good rains at Hamrah Judah that produced seeds.  This image is from November 1984.  Note the large bulbous bill and prominent eye set into a relatively large amount of white on the sides of the head.

Temminck's Lark - I have records from Haradh and the Dibdibah November to April.

Eurasian Dotterel - This species was only found on the Dibdibah (northern Eastern Province).  We did not see it every year but did locate flocks of up to 400 during December 1983.  By March their numbers are greatly diminished as they returned to high Arctic habitats in Eurasia to breed.