Mats Ris a
local birdwatcher saw a Crested Honey Buzzard 21 March and managed to get a
couple of photos of the bird over Dhahran Hills. This bird has been around for
the entire winter as it or another has done in the same place for the last four
years. Mats photos that he has kindly allowed me to use on my website look like
two different birds but Mats is sure it was a single bird and the photos are of
the same individual. The best place for seeing the bird is very early morning,
just after first light, as it flys from its roosting area on the golf course.
Unfortunately we have never found where it spends the rest of the day so may
move out of the camp to feed? Crested Honey Buzzard is a scarce passage migrant
and winter visitor to the Kingdom and this winter apart from two birds in
Dhahran another has been seen in Jeddah earlier in 2015. Mats also saw Western
Great Egret and a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron at the pool on the golf
course. The Western Great Egret has been around for the last two months at
least and the Black-crowned Night heron has been see a few times in the last
month as well.
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| Crested Honey Buzzard |
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| Crested Honey Buzzard |
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| Black-crowned Night Heron (left) & Western Great Egret (right) |