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First Oriental Skylark Record Confirmed in Northwestern Saudi Arabia

Oriental Skylark standing on dry open ground with a low crest
Conservation · Population & status

An oriental skylark (Alauda gulgula) observed near Al Wajh on 9 March 2025 has become the first confirmed record of the species in the Tabuk region of northwestern Saudi Arabia. The record, published in Sandgrouse in 2026, is also only the second documented observation from the country’s western coast.

The bird was found at the edge of a grey mangrove (Avicennia marina) patch in the intertidal zone southeast of Al Wajh. It was initially detected in flight by its distinctive buzz-like call. The observers also noted a buff trailing edge to the wing, a relatively short tail, short primary projection—meaning the wingtip feathers projected only a short distance beyond the folded inner wing feathers—and rusty fringes on the flight feathers before watching the bird forage on the ground alongside white wagtails (Motacilla alba).

The authors compiled 13 earlier Saudi records dating from 1984 to 2024. Most were from the Persian Gulf coast, particularly sites around Dhahran and Jubail, while western records were much scarcer. Before the new Tabuk observation, the only western coastal record in their compilation was a bird at Jeddah in March 2020.

The researchers suggest that oriental skylarks may be more widespread in Saudi Arabia than the small number of records indicates. Limited observer coverage and confusion with the more widespread Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis) could contribute to under-recording, and the concentration of records in migration periods raises the possibility of an overlooked route through western Saudi Arabia.

Sources and image credit

  1. Alves, P., Ferreira, D. F., Brito, J. C., El-Bana, M., Al-Ansari, A., Al-Attas, O., & Coelho, A. P. (2026). First record of Oriental Skylark Alauda gulgula from the northwestern coast of Saudi Arabia, with a compilation of national records. Sandgrouse, 48(1), 50–53.Primary article in Sandgrouse 48(1), labelled Spring 2026 by OSME. ResearchGate catalogues the article as July 2026; the author full-text was uploaded there on 13 August 2026. Because the August upload post-dates the documented publication, Wildlife Vagabond uses July 2026 with month-level date precision.

Image: Oriental skylark (Alauda gulgula) on a dry riverbank near Hyderabad, India, 5 December 2019. Photo: Hari K Patibanda / Wikimedia Commons / Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Representative species image; not the bird documented near Al Wajh in Saudi Arabia. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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