I took a few photos today of a Pharaoh Eagle Owl in Dhahran Camp. It allowed extremely close approach in the car and the below photos are some of those I took before leaving in in place on its favourite perch. Although they have occurred here previously this is the first time I have seen and photographed the species on my ‘patch’. They are an uncommon species throughout most of the Kingdom. The Pharaoh Eagle Owl is distributed throughout much of North Africa and the Middle East, with two recognised subspecies and the smaller, paler and sandier coloured Bubo ascalaphus desertorum appearing to be this subspecies. They are found in arid habitats, including open desert plains, rocky outcrops and broken escarpments and jabals, mountain cliffs and wadis.
