Kuwait Birds

 

Our travel blog has been pretty quiet lately. I thought I would add some bird photos I have taken over the last year.

For me, the restriction of the global pandemic led to a renewed interest in bird watching and bird photography. 

Kuwait can be a challenging place to live for people who are especially outdoor oriented. We definitely struggled to beat the heat, dust, and pollution when trying to enjoy the outdoors in a tiny country with limited things to do outside and no real option of crossing the land borders. It turns out however, that Kuwait has some great bird biodiversity and seeking out Kuwait's birds provided a fresh perspective and appreciation of what the country has to offer. 

Kuwait has some resident birds that can be found year around. Others like these European Bee-eaters show up on their migration between Africa and Eurasia.

Coastal areas often have an abundance of shorebirds. The Greater Flamingo is an especially appealing photography subject.

Eurasian Curlew

Little Stints

Wood Sandpiper

Juvenile Lesser Crested Terns

Black-winged Stilt

Common Moorhen

Curlew Sandpiper

Terek Sandpiper

Whimbrel

Western Great Egret

Gray Herons fight over a mudskipper in Sulaibikhat bay

Black-crowned Night Heron

Squacco Heron

Cattle Egret

Western Reef Heron (dark morph)

Western Reef Heron (light morph)

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Common Ringed Plover

Crab Plover snacking on a crab

Another Sandpiper

White-throated Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

Much of Kuwait is fairly barren. Most good birding locations required areas of expansive vegetation and proximity to water. White-eared Bulbuls however were an attractive bird that could be found all over Kuwait City.

Similarly, a variety of pigeon species like the rock dove, Laughing Dove and Eurasian Collared-dove could always be found close to home and are decent photo subjects in the right light.  

Eurasian Collared-dove

Namaqua Dove

Western Yellow Wagtail (black-headed)

                   Western Yellow Wagtail (yellow-headed)

                                            Gray Wagtail

White Wagtail

House Sparrow at a Jahra farm

Spanish Sparrow

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

Northern Wheatear

Desert Wheatear

Red-tailed Wheatear

Common Kestrel

Severed ties on the ankles seem to indicate an escape of the falconry trade.

Masked Shrike

Red-backed Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Red-tailed Shrike

Southern Gray Shrike

Lesser Gray Shrike

Spotted Flycatcher on the left and 
White-throated Robin to the right.

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater and a 
Scops Owl.

European Roller

Stonechat

Crested Lark

Graceful Prinia

                                        Great Cormorant

                                                    Warbler

                                        Common Redstart

Common Black-headed Gull

Whiskered Tern

Eurasian Hoopoe

                                            Common Myna

                                                Bank Myna

                                    Eurasian Golden Oriole

                                                More Bulbuls

                                            More Flamingos