Whilst birding Al Hair, near Riyadh recently I came across a flock of approximately twenty Arabian Golden Sparrows, including juveniles. They were in a large mixed flock of Streaked Weavers and Indian Silverbills but soon moved apart and started associating with Spanish Sparrows. This species is a breeding resident in the southwest of the Kingdom but have not been seen north of Al Shuqaiq. The birds in Riyadh have almost certainly come from escaped cage birds but individuals have been seen in this area since 2013 at least and a group of twenty birds including juveniles suggests they are breeding in the area and probably now have a self-sustaining breeding population. These birds should be monitored over the next few seasons to see in numbers increase. This area has at least two other species of exotic birds resident with self-sustaining breeding population Streaked Weaver and Red Avadavat.
