Intercontinental Hotel, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

My first birding trip in Saudi Arabia was an afternoon stroll around the nine hole golf course at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh on a pleasant sunny day. I was accompanied by Rob Tovey host of the excellent Birding For A Lark blog. Apart from the chance to kick start my KSA list with a few of the common city birds Rob said he had heard that the golf course was reputed to be a good site to find grey hypocolius. This is a species I had seen in the United Arab Emirates but was becoming increasingly difficult to find there in any large numbers due to habitat destruction.

Yellow-vented bulbul

One bird I expected to see was soon found on the fringe of the golf course, a black bush robin. It's a common garden bird in Riyadh and I'm sure to tire of it but it was a lifer and looked very smart as it took flight showing the faintest of orange panels in it's wings.

Black bush robin

After finding a few expected and common birds such as white-cheeked bulbul, yellow vented bulbul and common myna the first bird of note was a nice masked shrike perched high in an acacia tree, it appeared to be a first winter bird given its indistinct facial markings. Then deep in a wooded thicket we saw a movement that lead us to our first pair of grey hypocolius.

Grey hypocolius (male)

It appears the golf course is indeed a favoured roost for this key Arabian species becaues from about 3 pm a steady stream of birds arrived in flocks of up to 30 announcing themselves as they landed in one or two favoured trees with their  distinctive calls. In total some 220 birds were counted in as the shadows lengthened.

Grey hypocolius (female)

After a (non-alcoholic) drink at the golf club house we took a final walk around the main lake and were rewarded with a grey wagtail on the small waterfall which Rob said was a scarce bird in Riyadh.


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50 Feral pigeon

100 Collared dove

80 Laughing dove

4 Ring-necked parakeet

3 Little green bee-eater

4 Pale crag martin

1 Grey wagtail

1 White wagtail

15 Yellow-vented bulbul

60 White-cheeked bulbul

15 Red-vented bulbul

220 Grey hypocolius

6 Black-bush robin

1 Masked shrike

4 Common myna

200 House sparrow

6 Indian silverbill