Birds of Saudi Arabia: Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Showing posts with label Eurasian Sparrowhawk. Show all posts

20 December 2024

Winter birding – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

The Waste Water Lake in Dhahran has now started to get some regular winter species. The land around the lake is well vegetated but has been seriously lacking birds in the last couple of months. Now a few wintering species are turning up with Bluethroat and Daurian Shrike seen on every visit. Indian Silverbill are busy collecting nesting material and Graceful Prinia are singing loudly again after being quiet for a few months. Two Western Marsh Harrier are using the reeds for resting in and a minimum of three Eastern Stonechat are around, all in one small area with the regular Eurasian Sparrowhawk busy trying to catch any of the unwary birds. The lake itself has a few water birds with a juvenile Purple Heron, Western Cattle Egrets and Western Great Egret present. A few Gull-billed Tern are still present and Common Black-headed Gull drop in in very small numbers each day. Eurasian Collared Dove are again common in the area after reducing in number during the summer months.

Daurian Shrike

Eastern Stonechat

Eurasian Collared Dove

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Purple Heron

Western Cattle Egret

Western Great Egret

Western Marsh Harrier

02 February 2023

Birding Aqua Park – Jubail

Phil Roberts and I went to Aqua Park to see if the cold weather had brought any birds down. We arrived at first light and walked to the end of the park where we saw a Eurasian Sparrowhawk in an aerial battle with a Common Kestrel. We also saw a Western Marsh Harrier in the same area along with two Common House Martins. We then went to the waterside where I saw a Pied Kingfisher flying down the estuary as well as a Striated Heron, an unusual bird in the Eastern Province. Also flying over the water were a few Slender-billed Gulls, a Squacco Heron and a Western Great Egret. On the water itself were three Greater Flamingo and three Eurasian Spoonbill. Further down the park in a tree on the edge of the water we found four Pied Kingfisher along with presumably the same Striate Heron as seen earlier in flight. A small group of Spanish Sparrow were in the reeds along with Clamorous Reed Warbler. At least one but probably two Masked Shrike was in the park as were two Eurasian Hoopoe.

Western Great Egret

Slender-billed Gull

Eurasian Sparrowhawk - juvenile

Eurasian Spoonbill

Eurasian Spoonbills

Greater Flamingo

13 November 2021

Terns & Indian Roller again – Dhahran Hills Lake

A trip to the Dhahran Hills Lake in early November produced many of the normal herons, egrets and cormorants but three fly over Eurasian Sparrowhawk were good and a continuation of a small movement of these birds over the last week. The slightly different birds than normal seen included a Common Kingfisher, two Pied Wheatear, a Daurian Shrike, several Graceful Prinia and three Whiskered Terns. The normal Gull-billed Terns were still present but they had been joined by the smaller and more agile Whiskered Terns. This is a species which is occasionally seen in the camp but is far from common. The Indian Roller was seen again but again it only came in at the end of the day and perched on its favourite yellow danger signs. I managed to get a little closer this time but the photos I took are still far from the best as the light is poor at this time of day.

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Great Cormorant

Grey Heron

Gull-billed Tern

Indian Roller

Whiskered Tern

15 December 2016

A few birds at Khafrah Marsh – Records by Arnold Uy

Arnold went to Khafrah Marsh a large wetland area on the main Abu Hadryiah highway last weekend and saw a few interesting birds. One was a male Eurasian Sparrowhawk, a winter visitor to the Eastern Province, where female/immatures are much commoner than males. Arnold also saw a Greater Spotted Eagle and a few Squacco Herons, a species that is common during the year but with a buildup in numbers during the winter months. Caspian Tern is a regular visitor to wetland areas near the coast but less common as far inland as Khafrah Marsh although they are still regularly seen here.

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Squacco Heron

Caspian Tern

11 November 2016

Eurasian Sparrowhawk in Dhahran – Record by Paul Wells

Paul Wells was out birding in the foggy early morning weather we had recently and managed to find and photograph a Eurasian Sparrowhawk. Paul mentioned there were two of these birds in close proximity and thought it was maybe it was because of the fog they had stopped over in Dhahran. Eurasian Sparrowhawk is a common passage migrant and winter visitor to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia although they are always good to see and watch. Dhahran camp is a very good area to see the birds with the golf course area the prime site. Paul saw his birds at the edge of the golf course so it is good to know they are back for the winter. I thank Paul for sending me details and allowing me to use them on my website.

11 April 2015

Unusually patterned Eurasian Sparrowhawk – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Whilst birding at Sabkhat Al Fasl Phil Roberts and I found an unusually patterned Eurasian Sparrowhawk. The bird had large white spots on its mantle similar to that shown by Northern Goshawk, but the bird was too small for that species and lacked the typical obvious supercillium and face pattern. We did not get good views of the bird just brief flight views as it flew along the edge of the reed beds and landed in dead tree before flying off again over the reeds and out of sight (top two photographs). The same bird was seen three weeks later (see bottom photograph) in the same place still showing the white spots on the mantle but again was seen briefly and at rang before flying off. This is the first time I have seen this on a Eurasian Sparrowhawk and we seen many every year in the Eastern Province.

25 January 2015

Some Arabian Endemics near Taif – Wadi Thee Ghazal

On Saturday 17 January Phil Roberts and I went to Wadi Thee Ghazal near Taif. This is a well-vegetated wadi with large mature Juniper trees and other large plants and was a site where Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak had been filmed by a camera trap in 2009 set to look for Arabian Leopard by the Saudi Wildlife Authority. As we were trying to see the species it was an obvious choice to bird and as it turned out the birding was excellent here. We failed again to see the Grosbeak but located Arabian Wheatear with both males and females seen, Yemen Linnet and Yemen Serin of the Arabian regional endemics. Other good birds included Arabian Warbler, Scrub Warbler, Song Thrushes, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Abyssinian White-eye, Eastern Black Redstarts, Tristram’s Starlings, Palestinian Sunbirds, Brown-woodland Warblers and Pale Crag Martins. The number of Song Thrushes was very high with about 50 birds seen during the day possibly due to the cold weather further north where snow fell in Jordan, Lebanon and northern Saudi Arabia a few days before. This is an excellent site for birding with a lot of birds present although the species total was low. The location where the Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak was seen was 21.0795N, 40.3435E that is approximately 2000 metres above sea level.