Birds of Ras Al Khor

Ras Al Khor is a wetland sanctuary just a short flutter from the World Trade Centre and the centre of Dubai. It's a lagoon, with a fringe of wetlands, right in amongst the traffic, providing a home for hundreds of birds, small mammals and marine creatures—who seems to manage to live in this oasis at the centre of a big city. You might think that a protected area in the middle of an urban one would be relatively unsuccessful, but in this case the fence has done a lot of protect the inhabitants, though people can see them via the three bird hides that have been built for twitchers, who can hope to see greater flamingos, grey herons, Indian peafowls, Asian pied mynas, blue-cheeked bee-eaters, Socotra cormorant, spotted eagles, purple sunbirds and many, many others. It's free to go birdwatching in the middle of Dubai and the hides are open between 9 am and 4 pm Saturday to Thursday.