Birds of Saudi Arabia: Spanish Sparrow

Showing posts with label Spanish Sparrow. Show all posts

31 May 2024

A few migrants – Al Uqair

Whilst birding Al Uqair last visit the number of migrants had decreased significantly although there were still a few birds about. Red-backed Shrikes were the commonest bird seen with tens of individuals scattered around. Several Spotted Flycatchers were also seen along with a single Whinchat. Other interesting birds included several Common Redstart, Daurian Shrike, Masked Shrike and Spanish Sparrow. The nearby coast had very few birds bit a single Greater Sand Plover and several Kentish Plover were seen on the tideline.

Common Redstart

Daurian Shrike

Greater Sand Plover

Kentish Plover

Masked Shrike

Red-backed Shrike

Spanish Sparrow

Spotted Flycatcher

Whinchat

20 February 2023

Winter species in Riaydh – Al Hair

Whilst birding Al Hair 10 February I saw a few common wintering species. This included Greater Spotted Eagle which favours the wet areas of the Al Hair river and occurs only from September to May. The White-throated Kingfisher which is a resident breeder and can be seen perched on overhead power lines and trees. A rarer species but still not uncommon was the Desert Finch which were seen in fields and on power lines in small numbers. Eastern Stonechat was seen in a couple of places along with Eastern Black Redstart. The pivot fields were quiet but had very large flocks of Spanish Sparrow and up to ten Western Marsh Harriers including a couple of male birds. Another bird of prey frequenting the pivot fields was a Steppe Buzzard. We failed to find any Streaked Weaver, which is normally common in the area, but it was dryer than normal so possibly this was the reason. The only other thing worth mentioning was a large group of well over one hundred Common Snipe, all of which flew before any photos could be obtained.

Desert Finch

Eastern Stonechat

Greater Spotted Eagle

Steppe Buzzard

Spanish Sparrow - female

Western Marsh Harrier

White-throated Kingfisher

17 February 2020

Spanish Sparrows – Shaqra

Whilst birding the landfill site at Shaqra looking for Steppe Eagles I can across a small flock of Spanish Sparrows. This is a common resident of northern and western parts of the Kingdom with numbers increasing in the winter months. They are not so common in the area where I live in the east of the Kingdom but numbers are increasing. They are presumably common in the area I was as it is well north and west of Riyadh in central Saudi Arabia but I only saw a few small groups. House Sparrow and Spanish Sparrow appeared to be equally common in the Sharqa area.

11 February 2020

Winter birding – Haradh

Haradh is an excellent site with many pivot irrigation fields that attract a lot of wintering birds. We visited recently and were quite disappointed to find many of the pivots have stopped being used to grow crops. This is probably as a result of the Kingdoms requirement for farmers to stop growing fodder crops from November 2018 to save precious underground water supplies. The fields were mainly there to feed the large herds of cows owned by NADEC and they have probably stopped growing the crop. There were a few fields with what looked like potatoes growing that had a few birds but numbers were significantly down on previous years due to lack of irrigated fields. We did manage to see a few good birds such as a male and female Pallid Harrier, good numbers of both Greater Short-toed Lark and Lesser Short-toed Lark and hundreds of White Wagtail. Several Desert Wheatear were also scattered around the fields. One field with crops held a flock of over thirty Northern Lapwings but nothing else of note could be seen with them. A flock of thirty Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse flew over at one point only the fifth record for the Eastern Province but the second in two years from Haradh. A Greater Hoopoe Lark gave good views as did a few Spanish Sparrows.

Desert Wheatear

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

Greater Hoopoe Lark

Greater Short-toed Lark

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Northern Lapwing

Pallid Harrier

Spanish Sparrow

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.