Mats Ris was birding in Dhahran in the earl morning of
8 June when he came across two Buzzards sitting in a tree. He managed to get a
few photos with his small pocket camera and sent them to me and the bird he
photographed birds appear to be a second calendar year female Crested Honey Buzzard a species becoming
more common in Saudi Arabia. Most records involve birds on passage and in
winter but there have now been three records of summer birds including this
one. I found an adult male in July in Dhahran 2012 and a female at Tanumah
(southwest Saudi Arabia) in July 2013. The birds Mats saw may possibly be two
of the birds that spent the winter in Dhahran this winter? Mats was out again I
the early morning of 14 June and saw one of the birds by the golf course where
it came out of the trees and again later in a small wadi at Dhahran Hills. This time the bird photographed was a second calendar year male indicating a pair are present. This
is the same area where the birds have been present the last two winters and
there have been male, female and juveniles. It would be amazing if these birds
were breeding in the area but this will be difficult to
prove, as there is no access to the area of trees where these birds spend most
of their time.
