Birds of Saudi Arabia: A smart male svecica Red-spotted Bluethroat

Nicole and I went ringing again at Sabkhat Al Fasl. This was our second visit after obtaining permission to ring in the Kingdom and we were hoping for a good catch. We have never caught many birds in our ringing trips in Bahrain, but this site looks like it will produce more birds than our regular site of Alba Marsh in Bahrain. We set five nets and although things were quite slow we ended up with fifteen birds caught although two Common Kingfishers and a Graceful Prinia could not be ringed, as we do not currently have the correct ring sizes for these two species. We did take all measurements before releasing them as these add to the knowledge of the birds of the site. As with last week the most commonly caught species was Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers although we also caught Common Chiffchaff, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail and Red-spotted Bluethroats. Two Indian Reed Warblers and a Bluethroat were trapped that had been ringed last week otherwise all the birds were new. A really smart Lucinia svecica svecica Red-spotted Bluethroat was trapped which is the subspecies from northern Eurasia and can only be identified from male birds in full breeding plumage as this one. They are common passage migrants and winter visitors to reed beds and humid thickets and are more often herd than seen. Plenty of White Wagtails and Water Pipits were around the nets but their amazing eyesight meant that hey could see the nets and flew over or around them.