​If you look carefully on your walks around campus, you might see a few of the 240 species of birds that call KAUST home. Marios Mantzourogiannis, the business manager for Government Affairs & Security, and Brian James, a former KAUST School teacher, gave the KAUST community the chance to meet some of our resident feathery friends at KAUST, an Oasis for Birds, a Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) 2017 photography exhibition held in the University Library.

The exhibition guided visitors through some of the main habitats for birds at KAUST and presented around 60 of the most common species regularly spotted on campus—and a few of the rarest species, as well.

James and Mantzourogiannis discovered bird photography in different ways: James has been bird watching for over 30 years, with his hobby beginning in Tanzania when he was a teacher there, whereas Mantzourogiannis started photography in 2009 and expanded to photographing birds in 2015. James has seen around 5,000 birds in total and recorded about 400 species during his time in Saudi Arabia, and Mantzourogiannis has photographed more than 100 species in KAUST.

"I have always loved nature, and when I got into bird photography, it immediately became my passion," Mantzourogiannis said. "I've photographed birds in other places in the Kingdom and also in places like Sri Lanka, Kenya and Greece, and I'm so thankful I discovered my passion for bird photography while being at KAUST."

"In fact," he continued, "the thing that surprised me about KAUST was its diversity—first it was the diversity of cultures and later on the diversity of birds here. We have some excellent birding spots here at KAUST, as many birds stop over during their migration, and a good number of species are present throughout the year. I hope our exhibition has inspired everyone to engage more with nature and birding."

You can view more of Mantzourogiannis' bird photos on his website at http://www.discovering-birds.com/ and James' photos on his website at http://kaustbirding.blogspot.com/.

- By Caitlin Clark, KAUST News

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