Birds of Saudi Arabia: Winter ringing

Whilst ringing at Jubail recently we have started to catch typical winter species. These include Common Kingfisher, Water Pipit and Bluethroats. Water Pipits are not easy to catch as they normally see the nets and skillfully avoid them but occasionally we get lucky. The subspecies seen in Saudi Arabia is coutelli. Bluethroat numbers are steadily increasing with them making up the majority of birds caught and involving adults and juveniles as well as males and females. Common Kingfishers are always great to catch as they are beautiful birds and are very gentle when in the hand. A more unusual bird for late November was a Great Reed Warbler that is late for the species. They normally move through in September and October with late birds seen in early November. Other species trapped and ringed were resident ones such as House Sparrow, Graceful Prinia and Indian Reed Warbler.