Bird Ringing in Jubail, Saudi Arabia

I woke up being carried outside and it was light, but barely.  It was already starting to get very warm outside.  It was about a one hour car ride to the city of Jubail, and  I changed into my clothes and ate breakfast on the way.  We arrived at a desert dirt road that was bumpy that we drove on to the ringing site for about ten minutes. 

My mom navigated us to the end of the road and we saw a white Land Cruiser and just as we pulled up, the ringers were just coming out of the reeds with bags of birds to weigh and ring.

I was excited to see the birds, especially when they told me they captured a White-Throated Kingfisher.  They took lots of different measurements.  They weighed the birds by putting them in a little plastic sleeve, and clipping it to a scale that looked like a little thermometer.  They also measured the wingspan, the length and depth of the beak, as well as leg from the last feather to the end of their claw.  

Another neat measurement they took was to see if the bird had any belly fat.  They blew on the belly to separate the feathers to see if there was any orange stuff.  The orange stuff is fat.  If a bird has fat, it means it is a migratory bird most likely. 

  

It was fun and interesting; especially when they blew on the belly fat.  I even got to hold a Kingfisher and several Warblers.  The Kingfisher even took a nap in my hands.

Check out more pictures and information on other birding trips on my website birdsandturtles.com