Saturday, November 22, 2008

Urban birding in Doha, Qatar

I'm visiting Doha, Qatar for a few days for work.
Spend most of today walking around the city and along the Corniche. And here's a few birds that I saw -
The first one is a quiet a sad image of a female House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) looking down on a dead mate that hanging out of a nest in the wall of an old old mud house. The male bird seems to have attacked by some other bird may be another male!
The next few snaps are of a Rufous-tailed Shrike (Lanius isabellinus). This is probably the most common Shrike species seen in Doha.
Its a very confident species that lets you go quite close to it.
This bird was earlier commonly called Isabelline Shrike or Red-tailed Shrike.
Next is the Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis); earlier referred to as either Palm Dove or Little Brown Dove.

Next two snaps are of the other common dove species - Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)Here's one more female house sparrow - this time in front of the new Museum of Islamic Art.
And the last snap is of a Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus).