Danny Orasa photographed the immature
male Crested Honey Buzzard that has been around Dhahran for the last three
weeks at least. He has kindly allowed me to use his excellent photos on my
website which are shown below. The current status, of CHB in Saudi Arabia is a
scarce passage migrant and winter visitor that also occurs rarely in summer.
Most records are from the Eastern province in winter and spring with additional
records in the west of the country in autumn, winter and spring. The first
confirmed record of CHB for Saudi Arabia was in Asir province 11 October 1994,
with another bird 5–10 km south on the same day. Whilst speculative, one reason
for the dramatic increase in records of CHB is the recent availability of
suitable habitat. Most records in the Arabian peninsula are from anthropogenic
sites with extensive shade such as farmed areas, suburban parks, golf courses
and plantations of mature watered trees (mainly ghaf Prosopis cinerea, but tall
gum Eucalyptus plantations are also utilised). An investigation in Saudi Arabia
found that hymenopteran nests are present every month of the year in the
Eastern province, with searches revealing two to six nests each calendar month.
As CHBs specialize in feeding on the larvae and honey of social bees and wasps
potential food sources are clearly available year round. Such habitats (and
densities of food sources simply did not exist in the Arabian peninsula until
the early 1990s and have been created at an accelerating rate since.
