A range of new eBird Hotspots added today, should be visible by tomorrow. Starting tomorrow, you might have to look for the new Hotspots in your eBird app by 'Choose a location' on the map. You can also find them here, by zooming in to UAE. https://ebird.org/hotspots Please let me know if you find any errors or have suggestions for new Hotspots.

Simon discovered it at 12 noon today

And a video: I must say, a better work-day, fully paid by your employer, is hard to come by. I was guided in a forest in north-east Algeria by top man Karim, and it was a morning I will never forget. Absolute magic! This species was discovered in October 1975 by a young Belgian birder, which is exactly 6 months before I recorded my first bird, an Eurasian Jay at our cottage in Norway. This was the start of a hobby that has lasted a lifetime. My friends and I were looking at this species in our books for years, a bird restricted to a few mountain-tops in far-away Algerie, as one of the very few IMPOSSIBLE birds to see. A difficult to visit country, combined with the Black Decade in the 1990's meant this bird was off limits. Big time. I'm happy to tell you that this is true no more. As the first Norwegian to see this bird, ever, (that is HUGE!) I can tell you that if you fly into Constantine, stay in one of the 4 star hotels there, hook up with the amazing gentleman named Karim, start at 4am and drivetwo to three hours to the north while enjoying an Algerian breakfast , you are almost guaranteed this gem of a bird. A HUGE thank you to Karim that really went out of his way to help me enjoy the Algerian Nuthatch today. He started at 4am, and will be home around midnight, meeting two Swedish birders 4 hours later to do it all over again.

To have eBird mobile display the names you know, and not the USA ones, as well as showing the UAE subspecies-groups like: Great Grey Shrike (Arabian) Great Grey Shrike (Steppe), follow these steps: You now have Turkestan Shrike displayed (not Red-tailed Shrike) And the subspecies-groups are displayed

Sometimes it's hard to see if there is already a Hotspot existing for the area you are birding, being it in the UAE or abroad. I use two apps on my iPhone: BirdsEye Hotspots (iPhone only I think) http://nemesisbird.com/reviews/apps/birdseye-hotspots/ Or, BirdsEye app that will also tell you of species you need nearby, for iPhone & Android: http://www.birdseyebirding.com/shop/apps/birdseye-for-android/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/birdseye-bird-finding-guide-global-birding-tool/id324168850?mt=8

Nick Moran and his team report a Little Gull today: Little Gull Hydrocoloeus minutus Vagrant. 1. One Khor Kalba 11-28 Mar 1996 (H de Haag, M Dryden). 2. One first-winter in Sila’a Harbour 3 May 1996 (SL James). 3. One Fujairah Port Beach 13 Nov 1997 (J Reynolds). 4. One Umm-al Qaiwain Tip 4-5 Mar 1998 (C Richardson, SJ Aspinall). 5. One Emirates Golf Club 11-21 Apr 1998 (C Richardson et al). 6. One first-summer Al Wathba Wetland Reserve 30 Apr 1998 (SL James). 7. One Kalba Corniche 19-20 Jan 2000 (C Richardson). 8. One Kalba Corniche 15 Oct 2000 (C Richardson). 9. One adult Sharjah Rubbish Tip 21 Jan 2006 (T Pedersen, OB Hansen, MR Engebretsen). 10. One first-winter Kalba Harbour 18-23 Feb 2006 (T Pedersen et al). 11. One second-winter Al Wathba Wetland Reserve 3 Jan 2007 (SL James, SJ Aspinall). 12. One immature Sharjah Rubbish Tip 5 May 2007 (J Buckler). 13. One immature Khor Kalba Harbour 12-15 Sep 2008 and again 20 Sep (SL James et al). 14. One immature Khor Kalba 11-20 Mar 2010 (N Tovey et al). 15. One second-calendar Fujairah Port Beach 6 Mar 2013 (M Ullman et al). 16. One first-winter Fujairah Port Beach 15-21 Nov 2015 (R Walker, D Jackson, A Pavlushkin). 17. One juvenile Khor Kalba 3-4 Oct 2018 (R Khan, M Smiles). 18. One Fujairah Port Beach 24 Jan 2019 (N Moran et al).

Two good features to note with eBird is: eBird alerts - under Explore (top left), scroll down to Alerts and set it up as needed. Target species: I use this a LOT when visiting new countries

If you, like me, enjoy uploading photos to eBird, you can view them & sort them in the Macaulay Library: http://tinyurl.com/ycjknmmb On your profile page, the number of species you have photographed also show:

So, how tired are you of seeing Black-bellied Plover and Red-tailed Shrike? It's easy to change it to the English names we often use in the UAE: 1. Click on your username (top right) 2. Click Preferences 3. Select as shown below:

Hi guys & girls I have been frustrated by not getting emails for new Forum posts (I use the Forum entries to add records to the UAE Bird Database for those of you not sharing via eBird). So, I looked into this just now: https://support.wix.com/en/article/customizing-notifications-in-wix-forum In short, make sure (from the main Forum page) that you are 'Follow Category' for the themes that interest you, and in your Notification Settings you activate the Follows slider.

Mark and Simon reports of an adult male Violet-backed Starling at Al Dhafra Beach Hotel. 2nd UAE record, first recorded in 2000.