Saudi Arabia documents the first case of nesting and breeding of a rare desert bird on its territory

- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia documented a new scientific and environmental achievement with the documentation of the first confirmed nesting and breeding case of the Egyptian nightjar on its lands, according to what was published by the official website of the Saudi News Agency “SPA” in a statement on Wednesday. The King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority recorded this achievement after accepting the publication of a peer-reviewed scientific paper in the international journal “Applied Ecology and Environmental Research,” which documented for the first time a confirmed case of nesting and breeding of the bird known locally as the “Sponsored Sparrow,” within the boundaries of the reserve.

According to the statement, this bird is a rare nocturnal desert species that is difficult to monitor and is classified as non-threatened on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which gives this documentation special scientific value in terms of understanding the distribution of wild species in desert environments. The study was based on careful field monitoring carried out from the Umm Al-Dhiaba site, one of the unique seasonal wet habitats within the reserve.

During the follow-up work, environmental teams spotted two bird eggs placed directly on the surface of the ground, without a traditional nest, which is a behavior known to this species. On April 15, 2025, after about a week of monitoring, the remains of egg shells were documented at the site, confirming the success of the hatching process and the actual emergence of the chicks.

Monitoring teams continued to record repeated appearances of the Egyptian nightjar in multiple locations within the reserve starting in mid-October, which indicates the existence of a continuous environmental use pattern for the site, and the species’ ability to adapt to local environmental conditions during specific seasons. The scientific importance of this paper is that it moves the record of the Egyptian nightjar in the Kingdom from simply recording a transient presence and potential nesting to proving confirmed spawning, which contributes to redrawing its reproductive range within the Arabian Peninsula, and updating data related to its spread and environmental behaviors.