Arnold Uy sent
me a photo of an unusual bird of prey he had seen on the pylons in Jubail. This
bird on closer inspection turned out to be a fresh juvenile Bonelli’s Eagle Hieraaetus
fasciatus a species that is
a rare migrant to all areas but is possibly
a winter visitor to the Tihamah, Hejaz and Asir in the southwest of the
Kingdom. In the Eastern Province the species is a vagrant with four records of
four birds. One first year Dhahran 2-9 January 1981, one Dhahran 4-27 February
1981, one captured exhausted 20 kilometres south of Safaniya 14 July 1984 and one at Qatif 11 December 1991. This is an
excellent record and shows the more birdwatcher there are, the better the
chance of finding good species. I thank Arnold for sending me the photographs
and for allowing me to use them on my website.
