Whilst birding the Jubail area in January
I found a ring-tailed Harrier that looked quite interesting due to its short
and broad wings. It was a long way away from me and I managed to take a single
photo which on inspection looked like a juvenile Hen Harrier. I then saw the
bird again flying at some distance and managed to move the car to an area where
I suspected it could reappear. When I saw it again, it was unfortunately flying
away from me. I took a few photos, looked at the bird through my binoculars and
became sure it was a Hen Harrier. The Hen Harrier is a scarce passage migrant
and winter visitor with more birds seen in the north-west than anywhere else in
the Kingdom. In the Riyadh & Central Arabia areas the Birds of the Riyadh
Region (Stagg 1994) states the species is a vagrant with only four sightings in
March, April, September and November. With only four additional records that I
know of from the area of one juvenile at Al Safi Dairy Farm on 19 October 2000,
one adult female on the same site 25 January 2001, a male in late march 1992 at
Wadi Hanifah and a male in September 1993 over Dywidag compound. Elsewhere it
is a rare autumn visitor to the southwest and Jeddah areas in winter and
spring. In the Eastern Province, it is a scarce migrant and winter visitor from
October to April but I have only previously seen one adult male in winter.
Females could be overlooked due to their similarity to other ringtail harriers
whereas males are quite distinct and are relatively easily identified. The bird
stayed on the same area for at least a week.
