Current view: Text account
Site description (1994 baseline):
Site location and context
A long, narrow, man-made river, the only large-scale freshwater habitat in the Eastern Province, running east-south-east from Hofuf and Abqaiq towards al-'Uqair. It is formed by run-off from al-Hasa oasis and sewage effluent from Hofuf, Abqaiq and numerous small towns, and frequently disappears under sand-dunes, to surface again a few kilometres further on. There are numerous pools of up to c.250 ha, often surrounded by large reedbeds. The rest of the area consists of sandy gravel plain and sand-dunes interspersed with sabkhahs and aeolian sand-fields.
See box for key species. There is little information on the site at present. Other breeding species include
Ixobrychus minutus (possible, in low numbers),
Tadorna ferruginea (possible),
Cursorius cursor,
Acrocephalus melanopogon (only Saudi Arabian breeding site) and
Locustella luscinioides (probable). Large numbers of wintering and migrating waterbirds have been observed during several aerial surveys:
Ardea cinerea (50-60),
Egretta garzetta (100), 10,000-15,000 ducks including
Tadorna ferruginea (50),
Grus grus (22), and small flocks of
Philomachus pugnax and
Limosa limosa.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Some of the pools are reasonably well protected through their inaccessibility, being surrounded by sabkhah and sand-dunes, but many are regularly disturbed by hunters and sport-shooters and the area is widely used for recreation by people from the al-Hasa region at weekends. An increasing demand for waste-water is reducing the amount of run-off and the watercourse is often diverted for agriculture or for development projects. The site is proposed as a Special Nature Reserve, Biological Reserve and Resource Use Reserve in the NCWCD System Plan for Protected Areas.
Data-sheet compiled by P. Symens.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Al-Hasa lagoons (Saudi Arabia). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/al-hasa-lagoons-iba-saudi-arabia on 22/11/2024.
