Last
weekend ringing we caught three Red-spotted Bluethroats and a single
White-spotted Bluethroat. I had heard a number of Bluethroats calling from the
reeds and scrub but towards the end of the ringing session we had not caught
any and then on the last net round we caught four birds in a single round. One
of these birds was a re-trap from 14 February 2014 that was also re-trapped on
31 January 2015. This shows the bird is site faithful for its wintering area
and was caught in exactly the same place all three times. One Red-spotted
Bluethroat was a new bird and the other another retrap originally caught the
week before. The White-spotted Bluethroat was only the second of this
subspecies we have caught in Saudi Arabia with the first being the weekend before.
Bluethroats will start to move out very soon so it will be interesting to see
if we catch any next weekend, if the wind stays calm enough for ringing. Care
has to be taken when identifying White-spotted Bluethroats as a few of the
Red-spotted Bluethroats appear to be White-spotted until the breast feathers
are blown revealing some faint red colouration at the base of the white breast
spot feathers.
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| Red-spotted Bluethroat |
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| Red-spotted Bluethroat |
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| Red-spotted Bluethroat |
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| Red-spotted Bluethroat |
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| White-spotted Bluethroat |
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| White-spotted Bluethroat |
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| White-spotted Bluethroat |