Red-headed Bunting seems to be set to be added to the British listing, pending a evaluate of the species’ standing in Britain by the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC).
At current, Red-headed Bunting sits on Category D: species that will in any other case seem in Category A besides that there’s affordable doubt that they’ve ever occurred in a pure state. However, a evaluate was just lately prompted by the BOURC to find out whether or not the species ought to be added to Category A.
The evaluate requests all submissions of all post-1990 Red-headed Bunting information, which is taken into account to replicate a interval sufficiently far sufficient after a restriction by the Indian Government on the export of untamed birds in 1982. The species was frequent in captivity till the export ban and this corresponded with numerous escaped birds (with small flocks sometimes even showing at websites akin to Portland, Dorset). However, the frequency of occurrences has quickly decreased for the reason that ban.
Initially accepted by the BBRC as a Black-headed Bunting, this hen from Out Skerries, Shetland, in 2010 has been reidentified as a first-winter male Red-headed Bunting (Stephen Dunstan).
There have solely been 4 information for the reason that flip of the century, the primary three of those regarding males in spring – at Baldhoun, Isle of Man, on 16-17 June 2001, Cattawade, Essex, on 21 May 2002, and Monreith, Dumfries and Galloway, on 8-9 June 2004. The most recent file, a first-winter male on Out Skerries, Shetland, from 2-8 October 2010, is the file that appears almost definitely to be added to the British listing as a nationwide first. The hen in query, which was initially recognized as an grownup feminine Black-headed Bunting, was reidentified by the Norwegian Rarities Committee as a part of their evaluate into the incidence of Red-headed Bunting.
The identification has been accepted by the BBRC as a Red-headed Bunting and is at present present process evaluation by the BOURC. On X, BOURC member Alex Lees suggested that, as authorized commerce of Red-headed Bunting in Europe would have ceased within the mid-2000s, the 2010 Shetland file is the strongest candidate for a wild vagrant. In flip, it’s prone to show to be the file that makes the grade as the primary acceptable Red-headed Bunting for Britain
In a curious accident, this growth got here simply previous to the invention of a Red-headed Bunting at Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire, on 21 October (see right here).
