The Lagoons are an exciting destination for birders in Qatar. There is no other landscape like it in the country, with the nearest equivalent the mangroves areas. This however is a fresh water environment.
Although there were a number of exciting birds to see on this first visit, I was pleased to note what I assumed was a thriving community of tree sparrows. The house sparrow is one of the most common birds in Qatar, and what initially took to be tree sparrows was a nice reminder of a familiar UK species.
On closer inspection I realised these were not tree sparrows at all, but Spanish sparrows. The Spanish sparrow is quite similar to the house sparrow but has a lovely chestnut crown whereas the house sparrow’s is grey. This feature is shared with the tree sparrow. Unlike the tree sparrow, though, the Spanish sparrow has a white stripe above the eye, which you can clearly see in the photo below.