The weekend of 29 January Phil and I saw five
Pied Kingfishers perched together in the reed-beds. There were two groups of
two and another single, with all five birds being females. These birds appear
to be wintering at the site as they are presumably part of the influx that
happened late last year. Initially a female Pied Kingfisher was found by me on 23
October 2015 with numbers increasing to twelve by 5 December 2015, the largest
gathering of the species ever recorded in the Kingdom. At least four staying
until the year end with five seen 29 January 2016. These birds were part of a
significant influx of Pied Kingfishers into the eastern part of Arabia in late
October and early November 2015 with birds seen in the United Arab Emirates,
Qatar and Kuwait as well as Saudi Arabia where other birds have been seen at Al
Hair, near Riyadh.
