Viv Wilson photographed an adult male Collared
Flycatcher near to Tabuk 11 April 2015 and sent the photos to a number of local
birdwatchers and Rob Tovey identified the bird from the photos. Collared Flycathcer
Ficedula albicollis is a rare bird in Saudi Arabia, with all records
coming from the west of the country, although they are probably under recorded.
The first records are the specimens collected by Meinertzhagen and
consisted of two males and a female obtained at Hadda near Mecca 10 March 1948.
Since then the only records I know of were singles
seen by Brian Meadows 27 April 1988, 3 May1985 and 7-8 May 1986. A bird was
found in the southwest of the Kingdom by King at Rhein-Ruhr camp 5 at kilometre 340 on the Taif/Abha road 22 April
1977. Females are very difficult to identify and there have been birds claimed
