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10 February 2018

Crested Honey Buzzard in Taif – Bird records by Beth Cumming

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.
Crested Honey Buzzard