Viv Wilson sent me some nice photos of an adult male Montagu’s Harrier
near Tabuk taken in early October 2014 that he has kindly allowed me to use.
This is a scarce passage migrant to the
Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia where
they are seen in April, September and October with up to eight seen in a day at
Haradh in September. The only birds I have seen on my local ‘patch’ were a second calendar year female and second
calendar year male over the spray fields on 22 April 2103. In the Riyadh area
they are scarce but regular passage migrant that passes in March
and again in
late August to mid-October that since 1988 have taken up residence around alfalfa
fields south of Riyadh during December and January. In the north where this bird was photographed they
have been seen at Harrat al Harrah Reserve where they are a passage migrant
mainly in April and September but have also been seen in December. The species
has been recorded rarely throughout the rest of Saudi Arabia all the way down
to the Yemen boarder near Jizan.
