Beth Cumming sent me an email of some
birds she had seen recently in Taif and one of the photos was of an adult male
Crested Honey Buzzard taken near the Intercontinental Hotel in Taif 27 December
2017. Published records of CHB are few, and recent references refer to it as a
vagrant. There has, however, been a steady increase in records since 2000 and
particularly since 2009 with birds recorded in every month of the year (save
August) and records peaking during the winter months (January–March). Smaller
peaks also occur in April and October–November dates that fit well with the
CHB’s migration period in Kazakhstan (where birds occur late April–mid June and
late August–mid October, peaking September). 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. This is the first record I have for Taif but birds have been seen a few
times in Jeddah. Beth has kindly allowed me to use her data and photo on my
website which is shown below.
