Saudi Arabia Birding Tour

Day 1, Arrival in Riyadh – 6th August 2025

After our international flights we will transfer to a hotel in Saudi Arabia’s capital city, Riyadh, and gather for dinner together, discuss the plan for the coming days, and prepare to start the birding, early in the morning the next day.

Day 2, Around Riyadh – 7th August 2025

We shall be starting very early so that we arrive in the desert north of the Riyadh for sunrise to maximise our birding time in cooler weather, before the temperature gets too hot and birds become inactive. The areas of sand and gravel desert that we begin birding in might not win any awards for scenic value but they do host some excellent birds with our prime target being the very range-restricted Arabian Lark. Searching through the desert we will look out for a variety of larks that might be feeding in patches of vegetation or, indeed, singing in the early morning sunshine. We will perhaps expect to see the impressive Greater Hoopoe-lark several times throughout the morning as well as Bar-tailed Lark too and there is the possiblity of adding the impressiveTemminck’s Lark on top of these. We should also see the elegant Cream-coloured Courser in this area too along with smart White-capped Wheatears.

A little later we can check out various locations along wadis and around the edges of farming villages for other species with common birds such as Arabian Green Bee-eater, White-spectacled Bulbul and Desert Lark all expected and the possibility of seeing our first Blackstart of the trip as well as Black Scrub Robin. Of course there will be other widespreadm but interesting, species too, such as the marvellous Thick-billed Lark, Desert Finch and perhaps Trumpeter Finch. There are some spots in this area that give us a decent chance of finding Sand Partridge if we have the time. By late morning things will be getting hot and we will head back to the city for some lunch before taking a short, internal flight to Al Bahah where we will spend the night.

Days 3-4 , Al Bahah – 8-9th August 2025

Having had a short day of birding on our first day we will take advantage of our energy and enthusiasm to go out pre-dawn to look for some nocturnal/crepuscular species. Plain Nightjar is one of those African species that also occur on the Arabian peninsula, but only present during the “summer” months when it breeds. Not especially plainer than many other nightjars, although it does lack any white on the throat, it is best located by its high-pitched mechanical trill; with luck there should be several pairs in the area we visit. One of the commoner localized owls that we will look for on this trip is Arabian Scops Owl and this will give us our first opportunity to see one before we have breakfast in the field at dawn on the first of our two days in this region.

Spending our time over the next few days in and around the Al Bahah region allows us to explore the mountains, wadis and rocky slopes for a lot of endemics and other interesting species including another nightjar in Montane Nightjar. We will search particularly vigilantly for one of the peninsula’s endemics, Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak, hopefully to be found in the wadis running from the escarpments around the area. This is one of the trickier endemic birds to find in Saudi Arabia but August seems to be a decent month for finding this beauty. We should always scan rocky hillsides in this area to locate Philby’s Partridge which should be commoner in the Al Bahah region than in any of the other sites we visit on this birding tour.

Birds should be quite numerous for these two days which makes for a very nice early part of the tour and a number of tricky endemics can be found here and along the way to our next base, Tanomah. Key species such as Yemen Thrush, Arabian Waxbill, Yemen Linnet, Little Rockthrush and Arabian Warbler can all be found in this area as well as more widespread birds like the incredible Violet-backed Starling. Stringy vegetation in dry areas should hold Streaked Scrub Warbler with its giggling call and areas with low trees can contain the colourful Bruce’s Green Pigeon and perhaps Dideric Cuckoo.

Day 5, Tanomah – 10th August 2025

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Day 6, Abha – 11th August 2025

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Day 7, Habala – Al Darb – Al Baish – Either – 12th August 2025

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Day 8, Sabya – Jazan – 13th August 2025

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Day 9, Farasan Island – Abu Arish – 14th August 2025

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Day 10, Abu Arish – 15th August 2025

Starting the day near a lake we will search for a bird which is quite widespread in Africa but has a very distinct form in this part of the Arabian peninsula; Helmeted Guineafowl. This version lacks the helmet and although

Day 11, Departure – 16th August 2025

This Saudi Arabia birding tour concludes with a transfer to the international airport for our onward flights.