Whilst birding Khafra Marsh recently Vinu Mathew came upon a Western Osprey at very close range. Vinu managed to take a number of excellent closeup photos of the bird and has kindly allowed me to use them on my website some of which are shown below. Western Osprey is uncommon at the location but is a regular passage migrant as well as resident breeding species in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Birds breed on islands along all coasts of the Kingdom where they are also a migrant sometimes occurring far inland. Birds of the Riyadh Region by Stagg 1994 mentions it is a passage migrant and winter visitor, in small numbers, that passes from March to April then again in September and October.
