Whilst birding in the Jubail in early December I found a small number of Whiskered Terns Chlidonias hybridus.
The Whiskered Tern is an uncommon migrant to all areas of the Kingdom including
Riyadh. They have wintered at the Gulf wetlands where the photos below were
taken, so it will be interesting to see if they winter this year. Records
appear to have become less common over the last few years with the ten seen on
2 December my highest count for the winter. During the 1980’s birds were
regularly seen in the Eastern Province between August and March.
