Phil Roberts found a
Red-knobbed Coot Fulica cristata at
Sabkhat Al Fasl on 22 May 2015. The
bird was located along the side of the main track going to the power station in
one of the bays. This is a new species for Saudi Arabia although not one that
was completely unexpected. Records have occurred elsewhere in the Arabian
Peninsula with a single record of a long staying vagrant in the United Arab
Emirates where an adult was seen at Al Warsan Lakes (Wimpey Pits) from 14 June
2002 until 10 June 2004 at least. Most records have come from Oman were again
it is a vagrant, but here seven records have occurred and birds bred at West
Khawr in the summer of 2012. Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar currently have no
records of the species. Red-knobbed Coot differs from Common Coot F. atra in breeding season by overall
slightly darker appearance with no white tips to the secondaries and a rounded
projection of the loral feathering between the bill and shield and red knobs at
top of frontal shield. They occur from southern and eastern Spain and northern
Morocco; Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Uganda south through Rwanda, Burundi,
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, west to Angola and south to
South Africa as well as Madagascar. Phil sent me a photograph of the bird he managed to take and has kindly allowed me to use on my website that is shown below.
