Bahrain / Qatar Ramsar wetland
Hawar Islands
96 bird species recorded; the most in May.
Petr Kadlec · CC BY-SA 2.0
This month here
0 species in January.11 species in February.9 species in March.54 species in April.68 species in May.37 species in June.3 species in July.5 species in August.15 species in September.34 species in October.25 species in November.14 species in December.
The birds you are most likely to see in the month you choose, those that come for the season first. It opens on today's month.
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- Resident all year
- Summer visitor comes to breed
- Winter visitor comes for the winter
- Passage migrant in spring and autumn
In numbers
96 species, counted.
Our own rating, from the records only: species (50 points), threatened species (20), migrants (20) and protected status — Ramsar, IBA, SPA, observatory (10).
- 96Speciesrecorded more than once
- 28Migrantssummer, winter or passage visitors
- 5ThreatenedVulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered (IUCN)
- 784Recordsopen records within 6 km
- 7Raptors
- 17Waders
- 6Gulls & seabirds
- 5Herons, ibises & grebes
- 1Flamingos
- 47Songbirds
- 13Other birds
From open records (eBird and others, through GBIF, licensed for any use). More birdwatchers mean more records: a quiet place may have more birds than it shows.
The checklist
All 96 species.
By group, with the year in twelve cells: the darker the cell, the more often the bird is recorded that month.
Raptors7 species
- OspreyPandion haliaetus
- Sooty FalconFalco concolorVU
- Common KestrelFalco tinnunculus
- Pallid HarrierCircus macrourusNT
- Booted eagleHieraaetus pennatus
- Greater spotted eagleAquila clanga
- Lesser kestrelFalco naumanni
Waders17 species
- Kentish PloverCharadrius alexandrinus
- Ruddy TurnstoneArenaria interpresNT
- Greater Sand PloverCharadrius leschenaultii
- DunlinCalidris alpinaNT
- Eurasian OystercatcherHaematopus ostralegusNT
- Grey PloverPluvialis squatarolaVU
- SanderlingCalidris alba
- Eurasian WhimbrelNumenius phaeopus
- Eurasian CurlewNumenius arquataNT
- RedshankTringa totanus
- Cream-coloured CourserCursorius cursor
- Common GreenshankTringa nebularia
- Green SandpiperTringa ochropus
- Curlew SandpiperCalidris ferrugineaVU
- Little StintCalidris minuta
- Common SandpiperActitis hypoleucos
- Black-winged StiltHimantopus himantopus
Gulls & seabirds6 species
- Bridled TernOnychoprion anaethetus
- Caspian TernHydroprogne caspia
- Little TernSternula albifrons
- White-cheeked TernSterna repressa
- Saunders's TernSternula saundersi
- Lesser Crested TernThalasseus bengalensis
Herons, ibises & grebes5 species
- Western Reef HeronEgretta gularis
- Socotra CormorantPhalacrocorax nigrogularisVU
- Grey HeronArdea cinerea
- Great CormorantPhalacrocorax carbo
- Western Cattle EgretBubulcus ibis
Flamingos1 species
- Greater FlamingoPhoenicopterus roseus
Songbirds47 species
- Hoopoe LarkAlaemon alaudipes
- House SparrowPasser domesticus
- Isabelline wheatearOenanthe isabellina
- Lanius excubitorLanius excubitor
- Isabelline ShrikeLanius isabellinus
- Crested larkGalerida cristata
- Willow WarblerPhylloscopus trochilus
- Pied WheatearOenanthe pleschanka
- Red-backed ShrikeLanius collurio
- Desert LarkAmmomanes deserti
- Common ChiffchaffPhylloscopus collybita
- Spotted FlycatcherMuscicapa striata
- Common RedstartPhoenicurus phoenicurus
- Eurasian Golden OrioleOriolus oriolus
- Barn swallowHirundo rustica
- Ortolan buntingEmberiza hortulana
- Rufous-tailed ShrikeLanius phoenicuroides
- Desert wheatearOenanthe deserti
- White-eared BulbulPycnonotus leucotis
- Common MynaAcridotheres tristis
- Tree PipitAnthus trivialis
- Western Yellow WagtailMotacilla flava
- Common Rock ThrushMonticola saxatilis
- WhinchatSaxicola rubetra
- Black-crowned Sparrow-LarkEremopterix nigriceps
- Lesser Grey ShrikeLanius minor
- Woodchat ShrikeLanius senatorNT
- Black RedstartPhoenicurus ochruros
- White WagtailMotacilla alba
- Grey WagtailMotacilla cinerea
- Blue Rock ThrushMonticola solitarius
- WhitethroatSylvia communis
- BlackcapSylvia atricapilla
- Spanish sparrowPasser hispaniolensis
- Common NightingaleLuscinia megarhynchos
- Sand MartinRiparia riparia
- Tawny PipitAnthus campestris
- Red-throated PipitAnthus cervinus
- European RobinErithacus rubecula
- Masked ShrikeLanius nubicus
- Barred WarblerSylvia nisoria
- Desert WarblerSylvia nana
- Great Reed WarblerAcrocephalus arundinaceus
- Eastern Olivaceous WarblerIduna pallida
- Rufous-tailed Scrub RobinErythropygia galactotes
- Siberian stonechatSaxicola maurus
- Eastern Orphean WarblerSylvia crassirostris
Other birds13 species
- Eurasian Collared DoveStreptopelia decaocto
- European RollerCoracias garrulus
- Rock DoveColumba livia
- Laughing DoveSpilopelia senegalensis
- Bee-eaterMerops apiaster
- European Turtle DoveStreptopelia turturVU
- Blue-cheeked Bee-eaterMerops persicus
- Eurasian HoopoeUpupa epops
- Ortygornis pondicerianusOrtygornis pondicerianus
- Namaqua DoveOena capensis
- Common CuckooCuculus canorus
- WryneckJynx torquilla
- European NightjarCaprimulgus europaeus
Monthly presence relative to all bird records that month, so a busy month does not inflate every species.
When to go
The most species in May.
Species recorded in each month, with the usual temperature and rain.
- Jan20°/15°6 mm
- Feb22°/15°5 mm
- Mar26°/18°3 mm
- Apr30°/22°4 mm
- May36°/27°0 mm
- Jun38°/30°0 mm
- Jul40°/32°0 mm
- Aug40°/32°0 mm
- Sep38°/30°0 mm
- Oct34°/27°1 mm
- Nov28°/22°9 mm
- Dec22°/17°7 mm
- Bar: species recorded that month.
- Temperature: average maximum / minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
- Rain: monthly total.
The place
Hawar Islands.
Desert islands in the Gulf of Bahrain
Hawar Islands is a wetland of international importance (Ramsar) in Bahrain.
96 bird species have been recorded here more than once, in 784 open records.
The most recorded are the Osprey, the Western Reef Heron and the Hoopoe Lark.
10 species come for the summer, 16 for the winter and 2 only pass through.
5 are threatened worldwide, including Socotra Cormorant, Sooty Falcon and Grey Plover.
The most species are recorded in May.

Get there and watch
- Hawar Beach Hotelplace to stay · 4.1 km · 1 within 10 km
- Bahrain International Airport (BAH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 70 km in a straight lineCar hire at BAH airport (Manama)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The place and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the bird hides, towers and trails that OpenStreetMap shows.

Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 3observation towers within 6 km
- 1places to stay within 10 kmHawar Beach Hotel
- bird hides within 6 km
- marked trails within 4 km
- visitor centres within 6 km
- viewpoints within 5 km
- car parks within 3 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- campsites within 10 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
Around Hawar Islands.
The lakes, beaches, islands, rivers and mountains around this place, and its night sky, in the family's atlases.
Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Other places nearby.
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q1165876) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Birds | 784 open bird records within 6 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only; mostly eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology) |
| See these records | gbif.org |
| Species | GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikidata (CC0); Wikimedia Commons |
| Altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Temperature and rain | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Islandyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.


