The Kuwait Environment Protection Society announced that the number of bird species in Kuwait has risen to 426, following the sighting of two new species for the first time in the country. Mohammed Shah, head of the Society's bird monitoring and protection team, revealed during his monthly meeting with team members that "during the first six months of 2025, birdwatchers in Kuwait spotted five new bird species. Similarly, this year, 2026, just days before the end of the first six months, they spotted two new species, bringing the total number of bird species in Kuwait to 426.".
Shah said: “This happened during a sea trip in Kuwait Bay by birdwatcher Ammar Al-Juraibi, when he was able to see the first bird, the Cory’s Shearwater, and filmed it with his mobile phone. The following day, the two birdwatchers Abdulrahman Al-Sarhan, Omar Al-Shaheen, and Hamoud Al-Shayji went to the bay to search for the aforementioned bird, but they were unable to find it. During the search, they saw another bird, the Sooty Gull. This bird is not far from its areas of presence, as it is found in the Arabian Gulf region to the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as in the Red Sea, and this is the first time it has been seen in the State of Kuwait.”.
He explained: “The Coryza shearwater, however, is far removed from its habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. Its range extends along the eastern shores of the ocean (Western Europe and Africa) and the western shores (Eastern Americas), sometimes reaching as far south as the Indian Ocean, south of Madagascar.” In a related context, Mohammed Al-Hadheena, a member of the bird monitoring and protection team at the Kuwait Environment Protection Society, noted that he “conducted research and monitoring of breeding birds in Kuwait. Through this research, he was able to document the breeding of two bird species that had not been previously recorded or documented. After reviewing the Al-Sarhan website for Kuwaiti birds, it became clear that the number of breeding bird species at the site had reached 93. He then continued his research to determine the total number of breeding bird species in Kuwait. Following up with Rashid Al-Hajji, head of the Kuwaiti Environmental Lens team, who had posted documentation of the breeding of two more bird species on social media, the number rose to 95. Three additional bird species were documented by Omar Al-Shaheen, bringing the total to 98.”.
The nursery included “the black-winged blackbird (Shuula al-Sawda) which was documented by a citizen in the Al-Wafra area, and the black-winged kite, whose breeding was documented by another citizen in the southern regions of Kuwait, and both of them were documented during the spring of last year 2025, and he contacted these citizens and verified the documents that they provided to him,” announcing “the completion of his research and his reaching an inevitable conclusion that the number of types of birds that breed in Kuwait is 100 types until this year 2026.”.
