Pied Kingfisher in Jeddah – Bird record by Roy Verhoef

Roy is a birdwatcher who comes to Saudi Arabia occasionally for work and goes birding when he is in Kingdom. Roy sent me a number of photos of birds he has seen including one of a Pied Kingfisher taken in Jeddah in December 2013. Pied Kingfisher is a scarce winter visitor to Saudi Arabia with most records in the Eastern province. I know of one record from Lake Yanbu in the west of the country 14 April 1999 so this is a good record and as a result I asked Roy for some details. He sent me the following “Most of the time we stay in Jeddah in the Trident Hotel and birding means mainly walking to the bridge nearby if we have a spare time. On the 8th of December 2013 at the south side of the bridge I saw the Pied Kingfisher hovering at 10:10 hrs when it flew away to the other side of the bridge (north). Almost half an hour later I found the Kingfisher for the second time perched this time”. I thank Roy for allowing me to use his photo of the Pied Kingfisher and for supplying details of the location.