Recent status and occurrence of Crested Honey Buzzards Pernis ptilorhynchus in the Arabian peninsula, with emphasis on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

摘要

The status and occurrence of Crested Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhynchus in the Middle East and particularly the Arabian peninsula is not well documented and has changed markedly in recent years. The region's latest field guide (Porter & Aspinall 2010) indicates it is rare in winter and on passage to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and southern Iran and a vagrant elsewhere. Orta & Marks (2014) make no mention of its occurrence in the Arabian peninsula whilst a paper concerning distribution and movements in the westernmost part of its range (Faveyts et al 2011) only gives three records for Saudi Arabia (although status in the UAE is correctly reported). Here we clarify the changing status of Crested Honey Buzzard (CHB) in the Arabian peninsula, primarily using recent data from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.