Fulvescens Greater Spotted Eagle - Jubail

During the winter there was a slightly unusual coloured Greater Spotted Eagle in the Jubail area. It was not the normal dark chocolate colour I associate with these birds but a much more warmer colour. I have never seen the bird close but managed the below photos on one day of its stay that amounted to several weeks. They are not great but show how the bird looked like in the field at least. Yoav Perlman very kindly pointed out this bird looked odd and similar to a Lesser Spotted Eagle due to its small head and bill and pale underwing coverts that are paler than the remiges. I sent the photos to Dick Forsman who said he thought the bird was a fulvescens Greater Spotted Eagle although could not rule out Lesser Spotted Eagle genes being involved in the bird.

Satellite Tagged Lesser Spotted Eagle in Saudi Arabia in 2010 – Details Bernd-U Meyberg

Proof that Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina has occurred in Saudi Arabia came from a second calendar year bird fitted with a GPS-PTT (94739) in July 2009 by Bernd-U Meyberg. The bird wintered in Tanzania and migrated to Ukraine in spring 2010 via the Caucasus mountains east of the Black Sea. In autumn it migrated south on almost the same route and passed through eastern Syria into Saudi Arabia 28 September 2010 at 12:00 hrs GMT and was last recorded in Saudi Arabia 5 October at 08:00 hrs GMT. One hour later at 09:00 hrs GMT 5 October the bird was in Yemen and on 9 October 2010 at 09:00 hrs GMT it crossed the Bab-el-Mandeb into Africa see map below. This is the first record of a satellite tracked Lesser Spotted Eagle using this route, although it is a well-known route of Steppe Eagles and follows the eastern coast of the Red Sea to Bab-el-Mandeb and confirms the Lesser Spotted Eagles occurrence in Saudi Arabia. The details were supplied by Bernd and I am very grateful to him for them as well as the route the bird took,

Lesser Spotted Eagle and more – Sabkhat Al Fasl

As it was meant to be windy on Friday Phil and I went to our normal weekend birding spot of Sabkhat Al Fasl. A Red-wattled Lapwing had been found there by Lou and Brian, who had come down the previous weekend from Riyadh and Kaust, for a long weekends birding. Red-wattled Lapwing is an uncommon bird for the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and was a very good find. Unfortunately we could not relocate the bird so went back to our regular birding. Things were very slow at the site with few birds being seen except the regulars. This is probably because a number of the wintering birds are moving off and the spring migrants have not really arrived yet. The few remaining wintering species included Water Pipit and White Wagtail in reasonable numbers as well as the wintering birds of prey such as Western Marsh Harrier and Greater Spotted Eagles, of which we saw at least five, photos of which I will post later. Resident birds seen included Purple Swamphen, Clamorous Reed Warbler, Graceful Prinia and a few of the herons such as Squacco Heron which is now resident at the site and Indian Reef Heron. There were a few signs of migration with plenty of Barn Swallows, two Pallid Swifts, six Daurian Shrikes and a group of seven Marsh Terns that all appeared to be winter plumaged White-winged Terns. The resident Caspian Terns and Gull-billed Terns were also seen in the same area as the White-winged Terns. Not much else of note was seen except a few Great White Egrets and three Great Black-headed Gulls, two immatures and a fine adult summer.

Indian Reef Heron

Greater Flamingo

Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Purple Swamphen

Western Marsh Harrier

White Wagtail

White-winged Tern

The day was salvaged towards the end when we were about to leave the site and I saw an unusual looking bird of prey sitting on the edge of a raised bank. It did not give the usual impression of a Great Spotted Eagle and had a stance like the Western Marsh Harriers that often sit in this area as well as a large rounded head with no crest, shaggy feathers on the back of the head are a typical feature of the Greater Spotted Eagles we see in winter at this site. Unfortunately if flew off before we cold get the cameras and telescope on it, but when it did Phil immediately mentioned the two toned upperwing pattern. The wing shape looked slightly different to the Greater Spotted Eagles we had just seen but the bird flew out of view. We drove down to where it had disappeared and relocated it on an earth mound but at a long distance, where we could see it had drainpipe like leg feathers not shaggy ones like the Greater Spotted Eagles and when it flew again it allowed me to grab a couple of very poor images. The photos appeared to show the double carpal comma and the seventh primary was not fingered, a feature we could also see in the field, or if it was it was very short. This combination of features, combined with the obvious two toned upperparts visible even at range, appeared to point to Lesser Spotted Eagle which would be a new species for me for the Eastern Province as well as for Saudi Arabia as a whole. As a result I sent the photos to Andrea Corso to check our identification and Andrea said although the photos were poor it indeed seemed to be a Lesser Spotted Eagle. Lesser Spotted Eagle is a vagrant to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia with one record of a Sub-adult at Haradh 21 November 1980 and another seen by Phil to the north of Jubail. The first record for Saudi Arabia was not until the early 1980’s and there have been very few records since.

Lesser Spotted Eagle

Lesser Spotted Eagle

Lesser Spotted Eagle