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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

First Confirmed Evidence of Barn Swallows Breeding In Central Saudi Arabia (1 Viewer)

On February 14th during a walk around a local patch at Al Hayer, 20km south of Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) I visited a site where mud nests similar to those used by Swallows were seen.
On entry into the building I noted that most of the old nests had been destroyed but there was some evidence of them being rebuilt and three appeared to be in use. I waited around and within a short time these were occupied by sitting birds with regular visits from their partners. Repair work was also noted on some of the damaged nests.

I returned the following weekend Feb 21st) and in total there were 6 nests in use or ready for use and I was able to get access to one and got some shaky images of eggs. I attach a few photos on my main blog

irishbirderabroad.blogspot.com

as I can't get them to fit in this blog, feel free to take a look.

I have sent this evidence to the appropriate authorities and to their knowledge ths is the first difinitive evidence of Barn Swallow Breeding in the area. I will write up a formal report later in the season once I have gathered further info relating to egg numbers, success rate, etc.
 
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