This species occurs in a wide variety of habitats during migration, depending on the availability of food (Jennings 2010). It is most often found in open bushy country with scattered trees, in woodland and on riversides, as well as at sewage lagoons and rubbish dumps (Jennings 2010, Aspinall and Porter 2011). The migratory population passes through the UAE in March-April on their journey northward to the breeding grounds, and in August-October when migrating southward to Africa (Snow and Perrins 1998, Jennings 2010, Pedersen et al. 2017). During the breeding season, it prefers environments which are more arid, but where water availability generates woodland of acacia and ghaf trees, or cultivated fields, gardens and cropland (Jennings 2010). It feeds on flying insects, primarily hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), and it hunts from perches. There is no information available on the breeding behaviour of the population in Ras al-Khaimah. Elsewhere in Arabia, on the Batinah coast in Oman, the breeding period lasts from March to June or July. It breeds in colonies, digging burrows in vertical sandy surfaces, often in old field wells on farmland or in earth banks, but it also uses cavities and construction holes in buildings. Clutches may contain four to ten eggs (Jennings 2010).