Whilst birding the coast just south of Jizan we saw a huge flock of Lesser Flamingo’s totaling over 1600 birds. The species was a vagrant to Saudi Arabia until a year ago but with good numbers have been seen in the last two years, maximum flock size of 200 birds. With this enormous gathering, the largest flock ever to be recorded in the Kingdom, they are now a scarce visitor. There are a number of nests present in the area that were made by the Lesser Flamingos, the first breeding attempt for the Kingdom but no young or eggs have ever been seen so breeding has not be confirmed yet. The large numbers of birds may be due to the large-scale disturbances in Yemen pushing them into Saudi Arabia?
