Birds of Saudi Arabia: Green Bee-eater

Showing posts with label Green Bee-eater. Show all posts

11 December 2019

Arabian Bee-eater - Shaqra

The Arabian Green Bee-eater subspecies M. c. cyanophrys occurring from southern Israel to western Jordan and west and south Arabian coasts of Saudi Arabia and M. c. muscatensis occurring from central Arabian plateau and east Arabia (E Yemen to Oman and United Arab Emirates). The race najdanus (from Central Arabian plateau) is now included within muscatensis. This proposed new species is not difficult to see and can be seen away from the main endemic rich area of the southwest mountains, although it does not reach as far as the Eastern Province stopping around the Riyadh area in central Saudi Arabia. Shaqra is about 175 kilometres northwest of Riyadh and holds good numbers of Arabian Bee-eater. The ones photographed below were seen at Shaqra landfill site where a group of five birds were seen flying around.

05 December 2019

Birding the Riyadh River – Al Hair

I went birding to the Riyadh River near Al Hair recently. It is an amazing site with running river, reed beds and nearby pivot irrigation fields. As I live four hours drive away from Riyadh, I have not been before, but this will certainly not be my last trip. On arrival at the site I saw a huge flock of over one hundred Black-crowned Night Herons, easily the largest number I have seen in Saudi Arabia. A Western Osprey was sitting in a tree and groups of Mallard and Pintail were flying around. There were six or more White-throated Kingfishers and plenty of Arabian Bee-eaters sitting around along with some Crested Larks. One pivot irrigation field held two European Rollers and plenty of Streaked Weavers, Arabian Golden Sparrows, Red Avadavat and Spanish Sparrows as well as a few Black Scrub Robin. The rocky areas nearby held Blackstart and Eastern Morning Wheatears. The Riyadh area is the closest place Arabian Bee-eater and Blackstart occur to the Eastern Province although both are common further west and south. The pools and rivers held large numbers of Grey Heron and a few Purple Heron and Common Moorhen were everywhere.

Arabian Bee-eater

Black-crowned Night Heron

Blackstart

Crested Lark

Eastern Mourning Wheatear

European Roller

Mallard

Namaqua Dove

Spanish Sparrow

27 November 2019

Resident birds – Raydah Escarpment

Phil Roberts and I made a couple of trips down and up the Raydah Escarpment in October. We did not see many birds and some of the common birds seen every summer such as Dusky Turtle Dove and Laughing Dove were almost absent suggesting they may move to lower altitudes in the winter. Resident birds were still seen in small numbers including Arabian Wheatears, Abyssinian White-eyes, Green Bee-eaters and Blackstarts. A couple of Black-crowned Tchagra were at the bottom near the village but unfortunately, move off before any photos could be taken. A single Long-legged Buzzard was also flying around mid-elevation on the way down and unusually was of the pale type not the dark morph normally seen in the area. On the way up we stopped at the farm for the last few minutes of daylight and were rewarded a beautiful sunset as well as a few Fan-tailed Raven flying around.

Arabian Green Bee-eater

Arabian Serin

Arabian Wheatear - female

Arabian Wheatear - male

Fan-tailed Raven

Raydah Farm

Raydah Farm Sunset

12 February 2018

Birds from Taif – Bird records by Beth Cumming

Beth Cumming sent me some photographs of birds taken in the Taif area recently. Many were from the area near the Intercontinental Hotel and included Eurasian Hoopoe, Common Kesrtrel, Shining Sunbird, White-spectacled Bulbul, Green Bee-eater, Palestinian Sunbird and Common Myna. I thank Beth for allowing me to use the photo on my website some of which are shown below.

Eurasian Hoopoe

Shining Sunbird

White-spectacled Bulbul

Green Beeeater

Palestinian Sunbird

Common Myna

31 January 2018

Abyssinian Roller and Singing Bush Lark – Phil’s Fields

Whilst birding the southwest of the Kingdom this winter I went to Phil’s Fields which is a large pivot irrigation set up with three large fields. It is an excellent place to see good birds and I always see Singing Bush Lark and Zitting Cisticola there, and this visit was no exception. More unusual birds seen this trip included African Stonechat and Abyssinian Roller, both of which I have not recorded at the location and probably only occur in winter as this was my first winter visit to the site. Western Cattle Egret, Isabelline Wheatear, Green Bee-eater and Indian Silverbill were a few other more common species seen there.

Abyssinian Roller

African Silverbill

African Stonechat

Green Bee-eater

Singing Bush Lark

Isabelline Wheatear

28 September 2017

Some spring migrants in northwest Saudi Arabia – Bird record by Euan Ferguson

Euan Ferguson was in Saudi Arabia with a couple of other birdwatchers in spring 2017, conducting an environmental survey and found a number of good birds and many migrants in the northwest if the Kingdom at Sharma on the Red Sea coast and further inland at Dumat. The survey team added a lot of knowledge to the birds seen in the area showing how valuable environmental surveys can be. Euan sent me a number of his photos and has kindly allowed me to use them on my website some of which are shown below.

Bluethroat

Little Bittern

Green Bee-eater

Ortolan Bunting

Common Quail

Savi's Warbler

Spotted Flycatcher

Turkestan Shrike

Wryneck

Black-headed Wagtail

02 August 2017

Some good birds – Sabya Waste Water Lagoons

I visited Sabya Waste Water Lagoons three times in July 2017 and saw a lot of good birds in the area. I explored further away from the lagoons and found good areas of Acacia scrub and a well vegetated wadi and a large rubbish dump that had started to be used in place of the original dump. The rubbish dump had Abdim’s Storks and hundreds of Arabian Golden Sparrows as well as some Ruppell’s Weavers. The wadi area had White-throated Bee-eaters and White-browed Coucal. The pools held Purple Heron, Grey Heron, Little Grebe, Glossy Ibis, Common Moorhens, Western Cattle Egrets, Greater Painted Snipe, Spur-winged Lapwings, Common Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit and Black-winged Stilts. The area around the pond had White-spectacled Bulbul, Black Scrub Robin, Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark, White-browed Coucal, Crested Lark and Green Bee-eaters. This site is an excellent birding location and one I visit every time I am in the area and it always turns up good birds.