Whilst ringing in Jubail we caught
a Grey-headed Swamphen in a mist net. This is quite a feat as they are large
and heavy birds that seldom fly. It had managed to fly into the net and was
caught in the bottom shelf but as we place these shelves well above the water
to stop and incidences of heavy birds getting wet when caught in the bottom
shelf all was well. This is the third Grey-headed Swamphen we have trapped and
ringed at the site and they are always good to handle. The splitting of Purple
Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio into
five species means that Grey-headed Swamphen P. poliocephalus is by far the main species in the Region,
comprising the nominate, caspius and seistanicus, though the validity of the
last two is still debated. Swamphens from Saudi Arabia now comprise both
breeding Grey-headed Swamphens in the Eastern Province and African Swamphen P. madagascariensis which is a vagrant
with two records. A record of an adult at KAUST near Jeddah in September 2013
remained for at least three weeks before being killed by a car and two together
at Dhahran percolation pond in December 2014 for several days.
