As I have mentioned in a previous post the status of
Daurian and Turkestan Shrikes in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia is not
well documented but there seems to be a distinction between the arrival dates
and occurrence of the two species. Daurian Shrike is a passage migrant and
winter visitor with the first autumn passage birds seen in September some of
which over-winter and remain until March. In late February and early March a good
number of passage birds join the smaller number of wintering birds making
sightings common in parks, and wetland areas with reed beds. Turkestan Shrike
is less common than Daurian Shrike and is a passage migrant from September to
October and from early March until May. As a result there are only a couple of
months when both species can be seen together in the area with these being
March, September and October. As a result our ringing trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl
in mid-March allowed us to catch both species in the same ringing session
allowing close comparison of the adult males of the species. We do not catch
many shrikes in Saudi Arabia but have caught a couple of wintering Daurian
before, so it was a surprise to catch two Daurian and one Turkestan even though
the month was ideal for seeing both shrikes together. The differences in
upperpart colours were obvious with Durian being much greyer and Turkestan much
browner. The underparts colour of
Daurian is normally less white than the bird we caught with Turkestan always
showing whitish underparts in males.
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| Turkestan Shrike (left) & Daurian Shrike (right) |
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| Daurian Shrike |
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| Turkestan Shrike |