Phil Roberts and I went to Deffi Park in late November as the weather had turned cold and there was snow in northern Saudi Arabia. We wanted to see if we could find any displaced birds and we were hoping the cold weather may have moved birds south. Deffi Park is a large urban park in Jubail and holds goods birds most winters. We found four Black-throated Thrush Turdus atrogularis, an adult male and three first year males at this site 20 January 2017, the first record for the Eastern Province since the 1980’s, increasing to 12, two adult males, two adult females and eight first year males 27 January 2017 remaining until 10 February 2017. We looked around the areas under the trees where we had seen the birds previously but saw little sign of anything and no thrushes. We then found a Song Thrush that flew and landed in the top of a tree and when it dropped down to the ground it was joined by and adult male Black-throated Thrush. The bird was disturbed by a worker, so the only photos taken were the poor ones shown below and we went looking to see if we could refind it. Whilst looking a small group of eight birds, four Song Thrush and four Black-throated Thrush flew over with one adult male and three female birds. Bundy mentioned in his book Birds of the Eastern Province "Usually a scarce winter visitor from November to March, but numbers vary from year to year and in some winters it is not recorded at all. In years when numbers are good, such as 1982-3, birds have been noted at oases and cultivated areas from the coast to Haradh and Hanidh. Single birds in Dhahran in April and May were possibly migrants". It is now a rare winter visitor.
