Whilst ringing on 15 September we trapped
and ringed a White-throated Kingfisher. This is a scarce visitor to the Eastern
Province although they may have bred in Jubail this year. Since 2012 birds have
been seen regularly mainly in the Jubail to Dhahran areas. Sabkhat Al Fasl has
had quite a few records recently with three birds wintering at the site in
winter 2014-2015. Up until the end of last century it was regarded as a vagrant
but its status has changed with more records since 2000. It was a big surprise
to see the bird fly into the net whilst we were checking the final nets set
over a small area of water. I had seen White-throated Kingfisher in a number of
areas around this site over the years but never in this particular spot. This
was a first ringing record for us and almost certainly for Saudi Arabia as
well. The bird was in wing moult as can be seen from the bottom photo.
