Kingdom : Birds, Bunting

Heavy bodied, stout billed bunting without white in tail. Male diagnostic with black head, yellow underparts and unstreaked chestnut upperparts. Black of head subdued by pale fringes in Autumn. Females and 1st year birds lack black, bright yellow and chestnut colouring.

Kingdom : Birds, Bunting

Medium sized bunting with blue-grey bill, narrow yellow eye-ring and white in outer tail feathers. Male has yellowish green crown, sides of face and throat, with otherwise greyish plumage, including unstreaked grey rump. In autumn upper breast is streaked darker. Female is olive grey-brown, streaked like autumn male. Throat has buffish or yellowish tinge, streaked […]

Kingdom : Birds, Bunting

Male has unstreaked yellowish green crown, but otherwise plumage is grey. Throat white but in females whitish grey. Feet and bill in both sexes yellowish brown and eye dark brown in colour. Recorded in Qatar as passage migrant.

Kingdom : Birds, Buzzards and Falcons

Similar to Steppe Buzzard but tail longer and narrower with rounded corners. Head and neck narrower, protruding in cuckoo-like manner. Wing beats moe flexible.Soars on flatish, and glides on slightly lowered wings. Male has greyish head and upperparts, female browner. Below, colour varies between birds from blackish brown to almost white. Most are barred with […]

Kingdom : Birds, Crake

Skulking land rail, larger than Quail, but similar to crakes in shape and general character. Rarely seen out of cover unless flushed. Flight, which is seldom seen, can suggest a young gamebird, but note chestnut wing-coverts and often dangling legs. Otherwise only noticeable by characteristic breeding call.

Kingdom : Birds, Cuckoo

Usually seen in flight when long tail, pointed wings and shallow wing-beats can cause resemblance to a Kestrel, but head held slightly raised and wings not lifted above level of body. Grey above with barring on underparts; grey underwing has pale line through centre. Female similar but with brown wash on band across breast. Also […]

Kingdom : Birds, Eagle

Large long-winged Eagle with very pale underparts, square-cut tail with three evenly spaced dark bands and a broad head. Whitish underparts variably spotted and barred, some nearly all whitish, others with contrasting dark head and upper breast. Staring bright yellow eyes and broad head, flattened on top give it a rather owl-like appearance. Flies with […]

Kingdom : Birds, Finches and Sparrows

Small, rather inconspicuous, ground dwelling finch with a large head, stout bill and rather short tail. Male distinctive with grey head pinkish wash on forehead, underparts and rump, and wings. Bill an orange-red. Non-breeding female and juvenile sandy grey-buff with slightly paler rump, blackish grey wings and tail with paler feather edgings and pale yellowish […]

Kingdom : Birds, Flycatcher

A small Flycatcher, with clear white spots on sides of tail base. Adult male has reddish orange throat, and sometimes upper breast. Sides of head and neck are lead-grey. Females and 2nd year males have buffish white throat, otherwise upper plumage is grey-brown and whitish below. It moves around foliage like Willow Warbler, raising tail.

Kingdom : Birds, Flycatcher

A black and white coloured flycatcher. Male has a white half-collar onto sides of black neck, a large white spot at base of primaries, white on sides of tail, and white tipped median coverts. White on wing and forehead also present. Females more grey in colour.

Kingdom : Birds, Harrier

Smaller, slimmer and slightly narrower-winged than Marsh, with similar flight, but male more buoyant. Male has clear-cut white uppertail-coverts, uniform pale blue-grey upperparts, head and upper breast, rest of under surface white but wing-tip black (both surfaces). 2nd autumn male can show black wedge on wing-rip like male Pallid (as result of primary-moult). Female and […]

Kingdom : Birds, Harrier

Slender build, narrower, longer more pointed wings, longer narrower tail and more buoyant flight helps separation from Hen Harrier. In adult, rear-body slimmer than in Pallid. Male has dark grey back and innerwing, silvery grey outerwing but extensive black wing-tips; one black band on secondaries above and two below; red-brown streaks below dark grey upperbreast. […]

Kingdom : Birds, Buzzards and Falcons

Has long, scythe-like, pointed wings (recalling a large swift) and relatively short tail. In adult, combination of dark slate-grey upperparts, uniform tail, contrast between prominent moustache and white cheeks/throat, densely streaked underparts with red thighs and undertail-coverts, and shape and length of wings and tail separate it from Merlin and Kestrel. Juvenile browner above with […]

Kingdom : Birds, Kite

A buzzard sized bird with a characteristically shallow fork to the tail. Uniformly dark brown with a pale patch sometimes visible on the underwings in immature birds. Juvenile has dark eye-mask, pale feather tips on mantle and shoulders, boldly dark spotted breast but pale belly with no contrast to undertail. Dark band present near tip […]

Kingdom : Birds, Lapwings and Plovers

Typical lapwing size, told by plain head (accentuating dark eye), long yellow legs (which protrude in flight) and, in flight, all-white tail; juvenile paler on neck and breast, dark-mottled on upperparts with dark cap and faint brown tip to tail. Slender and graceful on ground, often with neck held erect. When feeding, tips down so […]

Kingdom : Birds, Martin

Broad-winged, almost square-tailed, largely brown martin. Dark brown upperparts lacking greyish tinge to rump; cheeks fairly dark usually contrasting with pale throat and underparts; fine spots on chin and throat can be hard to see; underparts buffish grey becoming darker towards tail-coverts without contrast; white spots in spread tail distinctive; underwing-coverts distinctly darker than flight-feathers […]

Kingdom : Birds, Nightingale

Dark olivaceous grey-brown, resembling small thrush, with rusty red tail and pale underparts, whitish throat and eye-ring, Very similar to Nightingale but darker brown upperparts, duller rusty red tail and darker brownish grey breast and flanks indistinctly mottled when seen well at close range; best distinguished by rather far-carrying song. Very skulking.

Kingdom : Birds, Nightjar

The palest of the nightjars. Pale sandy grey base-colour, broad rows of inconspicuous buff tips to wing-coverts and white patch on side of neck (often very hard to see); in flight, very pale underwing, and above, dark flight-feathers which contrast with pale upperwing-coverts. Both sexes lack white patch in wing, but male shows pale creamy […]

Kingdom : Birds, Lapwings and Plovers

A slim and delicate plover mostly recalling sand plovers (which see) in size and general appearance, but separated by long attenuated body, with wings projecting well beyond tail-tip, when perched; proportionally longer legs, long neck and smaller head with rather fine tapering bill; broader white supercilium gives a ‘capped’ effect. Male breeding shows distinct blackish […]

Kingdom : Birds, Pratincole

Structure and behaviour as Collared (which see); difficult to distinguish between the two. Adult slightly darker above than Collared, with no contrast between flight-feathers and coverts, lacks white trailing edge to secondaries, and underwing-coverts are jet black (but reddish brown in Collared can be hard to see, often appearing dark), tail fork shallower; when perched […]

Kingdom : Birds, Sandpiper

Medium-sized, rather slim wader; in winter plumage with red legs mostly recalling Redshank, but larger, cooler grey upperparts, white underparts, and longer finer bill, slightly drooping at tip; flight pattern differs markedly. In breeding plumage unmistakable: almost black, fine-spotted white above with long, blackish red legs and bill. In flight, shows dark tail and wings […]

Kingdom : Birds, Redstart

Size of Common Redstart. Brightly coloured male told from other redstarts by broad longitudinal white patch on wing-coverts (including primary-coverts), rusty red mantle and most of underparts, including throat; crown to hindneck whitish grey, black sides of head extends to shoulder. In winter both adult and 1st winter male (which has also white in wing) […]

Kingdom : Birds, Finches and Sparrows

Finch with a fairly stout bill, stocky body and round head. Adult male easily told by red head, breast and rump contrasting with brown upperparts, Females, 1st year males and juveniles are dull olive-brown, lightly streaked above and more heavily streaked below, with 2 whitish or buffish wing-bars. Uniform head shows conspicuous dark eye. Often […]

Kingdom : Birds, Shrike

It resembles Southern Grey Shrike, but smaller with stubbier bill, longer wings with long primary projection and shorter, less graduated tail. The white wing panel is confined to primaries. Adult forehead is extensively black, and without the white supercilium(it exists in some Southern Grey Shrikes), the bluish grey upper parts lack white on shoulders (sometimes […]

Kingdom : Birds, Shrike

It is smaller and slimmer than the Woodchat Shrike, has a finer bill and longer tail. Adult is unmistakablewith black upper parts and mask (female duller, browish-grey) with white face. Flanks are washed orange with a distinctive white shoulder patch. Pale wing patch is noticeable in flight. Juvenile similar to juvenile Woodchat Shrike but has […]

Kingdom : Birds, Shrike

Male is unmistakable, with reddish brown mantle and wings coverts contrasting to the grey top of head and rump, black facial mask and black tail with white sides to base. Females are warm brown above, tail darker brown, whitish underparts with dense crescent barring on breast and flank. Compare to similar Daurian Shrike. Juvenile has […]

Kingdom : Birds, Finches and Sparrows

Plumage is olive grey brown. The long bill with strong base is black in breeding male, but rose brown in female and juvenile male. Male has a yellow spot on lower throat, surrounded by olive-grey breast band and lower cheeks, with whitish upper throat. Lesser coverts are chestnut, median coverts form broad white wing bar. […]

Kingdom : Birds, Starling

It resembles the Common Starling in shape and behaviour, but yellow bill is shorter with curved culmen. Adult’s black and pink plumage can’t be mistaken. Has a long pointed crest which is raised when singing. Juvenile has a yellowish bill, pale lores, pale grey-brown upperparts with whitish grey rump and dirty white underparts.

Kingdom : Birds, Stork

Easily told both on ground and in flight by combination of large size, white plumage with black flight-feathers, straight red bill and long red legs. In flight , the neck is extended and legs protrude behind the end of the tail. Told from adult Yellow-billed Stork (vagrant to region) by straight red bill and all-white […]

Kingdom : Birds, Swift

Shape and behaviour much like Common and Pallid Swift, but much larger with remarkably slower and deeper wing-beats; brown upperparts and white underparts broken by brown breast band, vent and undertail-coverts.

Kingdom : Birds, Tern

Adult birds in spring are easy to identify from their red bill with black tip, black cap and red legs, which remain red throughout the year. The tail does not extend beyond the wing tips of standing birds. Immature birds are difficult to distinguish from immature White-cheeked terns. The Common Tern has a whitish rump, […]

Kingdom : Birds, Wagtail

In all plumages has characteristic yellow vent and undertail-coverts, greyish back, no obvious covert-bars but bold white translucent bar at base of flight-feathers (visible in flight), very long tail and extremely undulating flight. Male in summer has black throat bordered by white stripe below; female has less black or even whitish throat; immature has white […]

Kingdom : Birds, Warbler

A largish warbler with a long with grey crown contrasting poorly with black ish ear coverts. Adult male has yellowish or dark coloured muddy iris. Females brownish, similar to Lesser Whitethroat.

Kingdom : Birds, Warbler

The smallest of the Acrocephalus warblers. Pale brown above, with slight olive tinge with a warmer coloured rump, Creamy buff below with buffier flanks. Shortish white supercilium and pale eye ring. A rounded tail ( like all Acrocephalus warblers) long undertail coverts and sloping forehead. Best told by pale fringed dark tertials, long primary projection, […]

Kingdom : Birds, Warbler

A large warbler. Warm brown in clour, with diffuse lines or spots on breast, long undertail coverts, sometimes pale tipped, Often seen on ground, with bobbing or raised tail, walking with jerky movements. A secretive bird.

Kingdom : Birds, Wryneck

Its skulking behaviour and nightjar-like plumage often make it difficult to study in detail. Reminiscent of large long-tailed warbler or greyish female Red-backed Shrike when dropping into cover in low foliage, or slipping away in low, shallowly undulating flight. Often forages on ground close to cover. Distinctive features when seen well are pointed head/bill and […]