The Kuwait Environment Protection Society, through its Bird Monitoring and Protection Team, organized a field tour in line with this year's World Migratory Bird Day theme, "Every Bird Matters... Your Observations Make a Difference." This theme highlights the role of community science and the observations of individuals and volunteer teams in gathering data that enhances scientific research and supports decisions to protect birds along their migration routes. The field tour covered several areas of Kuwait Bay, where the Society emphasized that "Kuwait Bay represents an important ecological stopover for migratory birds during their seasonal journeys, as its marine and coastal environments and mudflats provide sites for rest and feeding. The Jahra Reserve also stands out as an important site for migratory and resident birds and wildlife in the country." The tour included the Jahra Reserve, Sulaibikhat Beach, Khuwaisat, and West Doha, and was attended by ten team members, accompanied by the head of the Society's Bird Monitoring and Protection Team, Mohammed Shah. In this context, the team leader, Mohammed Shah, commented: \u201cCoinciding with World Migratory Bird Day, which the association is keen to participate in annually, and which is divided into two days a year for counting migratory birds\u2014the second Saturday in May and the second Saturday in October\u2014the eBird platform encourages all birdwatchers to go out on these two days to count and observe birds, and to record and send observation reports from around the world.\u201d He emphasized that the eBird scientific platform is supervised by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the United States, and that birdwatchers, researchers, and wildlife enthusiasts from all over the world participate in it. Its membership reaches more than one million users worldwide, and its database reached more than two billion bird sightings in 2025. Shah continued: \u201cWorld Migratory Bird Day is very important for the bird monitoring and protection team because the team organizes a group trip that enhances the team members\u201d strong knowledge about birds and how to distinguish between different bird species. Therefore, we go out into the field on these two days. On the first of May, we go to\u2026\u201c \u201dWe visit Kubbar Island, where we observe breeding terns, and in October, we tour around Kuwait Bay,\u201d he added. \u201cThe tours also aim to monitor the movement of migratory birds and observe their presence in coastal and wetland habitats, documenting field observations. This contributes to enhancing scientific knowledge of the species that pass through Kuwait and their migration routes, and supports efforts to conserve them and their natural habitats.\u201d He noted, \u201cThis year\u2019s tour included 10 members of the Society\u2019s bird monitoring and protection team, in addition to the head of the Society\u2019s photography and documentation team, Samira Al-Khalifa, and others from outside the Society.\u201d For her part, the coordinator of events and monitoring trips, team member Athari Buhamad, confirmed that \u201cthe team leader tasked me with preparing and coordinating with the team members a week before the scheduled trip. The tasks and requirements of the trip were distributed among the participating members, and they were asked to be present at 6:00 AM at the gate of the Jahra Nature Reserve. I was also tasked with recording all bird sightings in all the observed areas on the eBird platform.\u201d \u201cThis is the platform we primarily rely on to record our bird sightings,\u201c said Athari Buhamad. \u201cAl-Jahra Reserve was the starting point for this trip, as it attracts many migratory birds and is the most important destination for observers. We then moved to Al-Khuwaisat and then to Sulaibikhat Beach, where we stopped for a short break while counting the birds present. After that, we headed to the Maternity Hospital Beach and then to West Doha, as these areas are known for their large bird populations.\u201d She stated, \u201cAt the end of the day, the data recorded on the platform, totaling seven to six, was compiled. It was found that 69 bird species were observed during the trip, six fewer than last year for the same trip. Reports indicate that last year the team was able to observe 75 species, and this decrease is likely due to the fact that we are still at the beginning of the autumn migration season.\u201d She added, \u201cWhat caught our attention was the large number of young Black-crowned Herons (Abu al-Khasif), which reached 82 birds, all of which were flying together over the reserve in the early morning.\u201d The tour activities concluded. In the field, following the birds, the Kuwait Environment Protection Society stressed \u201cthe importance of continuing regular monitoring work and raising public awareness of the value of migratory birds and the need to preserve their habitats,\u201d calling on \u201cmembers of society to support efforts to protect them, and to commit to not disturbing them or damaging their gathering sites during migration seasons.\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Kuwait Environment Protection Society, through its Bird Monitoring and Protection Team, organized a field tour in line with this year\u2019s World Migratory Bird Day theme, \"Every bird matters... your observations make a difference.\" This theme highlights the role of community science and observations by individuals and volunteer teams in collecting data that enhances scientific research and supports bird conservation decisions along migratory routes.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[133,134,99],"class_list":["post-14235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-kac-calendar","tag-kac-event","tag-99"],"yoast_head":"\n