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03 October 2015

Inland Greater Falmongo’s at Tabuk – Bird records by Viv Wilson

The Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus is a common visitor, predominantly in winter, to all coasts, but is scarce to rare inland. Records of several thousand have occurred at Sabkhat Al Fasl in the Eastern Province in recent years with a maximum of 5000. Birds of the Riyadh Region (Stagg 1994) mentions they are an uncommon and irregular visitor to that inland region but have been recorded in all months except July. The majority of records are of groups of 2 -4, predominantly first winter birds, arriving in January and February and lingering sometimes for many weeks. The record of Viv’s is of two adults in September so makes it even more interesting and was the first time he had seen the species on his local patch. I have only seen the species once on my inland local patch, which is only ten kilometres from the coast and they were two immature birds but Phil has recorded a small flock of adults flying overhead, well inland, in previous years.