Five new additions to the British List
In a major announcement The British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC) has added five new species to the British List.
Soft-plumaged Petrel
Seen at Flamborough Head, Yorkshire, 1 July 2021 (photographed), then same later on 1 July 2021: Long Nab, Burniston, Yorkshire; Old Nab, Staithes, Yorkshire; Cowbar, Cleveland; Whitburn, County Durham (photographed); Brown’s Bay, Cullercoats, Northumberland; St Mary’s Island, Northumberland; Church Point, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland (photographed); Low Hauxley, Northumberland; Coquet Island, Northumberland; Cullernose Point, Craster, Northumberland; Beadnell Point, Northumberland; Annstead Point, Seahouses, Northumberland (videoed); Stag Rocks, Bamburgh, Northumberland.
This bird was first noted passing north at Flamborough Head, Yorkshire at 09:35 and was broadcast immediately as a Desertas Petrel/Fea’s Petrel Pterodroma deserta/feae to give other observers the opportunity to attempt to see it passing coastal locations further north along the North Sea coast. Accordingly, it was later recorded passing a further twelve locations until it was last seen at Stag Rocks, Bamburgh, Northumberland at 19:05; now 197 km north northwest of where it was initially seen. The bird was photographed or videoed at four of these locations and when this media was shared online an alternative identification of Soft-plumaged Petrel was proposed and agreed.
Madeiran Petrel (Band-rumped Storm Petrel)
(© Clara Morey )
Third-calendar-year, At Sea, Sea area FitzRoy, ca. 48° 28' N, 9° 52' W, 16-17 November 2021 (GPS-tagged ‘LX07518’).
Madeiran Petrels breeding on Anaga Islet, Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) were fitted with GPS-tags (accurate to within several metres) in November 2021 to help elucidate their at-sea distribution. One individual ‘LX07518’ undertook a nine-day foraging trip covering 6,151 km up to 2,580 km from its breeding colony where, after visiting contiguous Irish waters (and becoming a potential national first there), it was logged in British waters ca. 285 km southwest of Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly; first at 21:14 on 16 November 2021 and last at 08:14 on 17 November 2021 (Brit. Birds 116: 232–234). After departing British waters it soon entered French waters where it has recently been accepted as a national first (previous records there were only accepted as ‘Madeiran Petrel/Monteiro’s Petrel/Cape Verde Petrel Hydrobates castro/monteiroi/jabejabe’).
This record represents the first species to be added to the British List without the individual bird being seen here either alive or dead inside British territory and its occurrence prompted clarification by the Committee of how we judge records of birds without a human observer (Ibis 166: 350-351).
Madeiran Petrel has previously been on the British List twice before. A historic record latterly placed in Category B of one found dead at Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, in November 1911, was removed from the British List in 2008 as there was no published description or traceable specimen (Ibis 151: 225). Subsequently one recorded At Sea off the Isles of Scilly in Sea area Sole on 28 July 2007, was admitted to the British List but was then removed following taxonomic changes and it was considered to be acceptable at only the level of the species group ‘Madeiran Petrel/Monteiro’s Petrel/Cape Verde Petrel Hydrobates castro/monteiroi/jabejabe’ (Ibis 154: 212–213, Ibis 155: 204). There are now a total of five accepted records of unidentified ‘Madeiran /Monteiro’s/Cape Verde Petrel’ in Britain with the most recent record in 2022 (Brit. Birds 116: 546-602).
Grey-headed Lapwing
Third-calendar-year, Low Newton-by-the-Sea and Long Nanny, Northumberland, 1-8 May 2023 (photographed); same Airdrie Farm, Crail, Fife, 11 May 2023 (videoed); same Balormie, Lossiemouth, Moray & Nairn, 13 May 2023 (photographed); same Balemore, North Uist, Outer Hebrides, 26-29 May 2023 (photographed).
The Grey-headed Lapwing was recorded in Britain over a period of 29 days during which time it relocated a straight-line distance of 425 km to the northwest.
There are six previous records of Grey-headed Lapwing in the Western Palearctic sensu stricto from Turkey, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Italy; all since March 2018. The records from Norway and Sweden are considered to be the same individual, but it is unclear how many other individuals have been involved in these sightings. The species has also been recorded as a vagrant to Australia, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Nicobar Islands, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka.
Five other species of lapwing Vanellus have occurred in Britain as escapes from captivity and although Grey-headed Lapwing is known to have been held in zoological collections in Europe previously it is not known in captivity here currently.
Black-winged Kite
First-calendar-year, Glan-Mule, Montgomeryshire 18 April 2023 (videoed); presumed same Brayden Marshes, Horsey, and Trimingham, Norfolk 17-20 July 2023 (photographed); presumed same Felixstowe Ferry and King’s Fleet, Suffolk, 20-21 July 2023 (photographed); presumed same St Osyth Marsh, Essex, 21-22 July 2023 (photographed).
The videos and description taken in Montgomeryshire on 18 April were not sufficiently detailed to enable confirmation that it was same individual as that present in Norfolk and Suffolk in July, but the consensus of the Committee was that all records could be presumed to relate to the same bird.
Although plumage traits suggested that this bird was likely to be in its second-calendar-year, there was not a consensus on the age of the bird, with precise ageing further complicated by the species breeding year-round.
Black-winged Kite is held in captivity in Britain, but there was no reason to believe this individual was not a genuine vagrant, and its acceptance as wild was unanimous.
Western Olivaceous Warbler
First-calendar-year, Skibberhoull, Whalsay, Shetland, 20-21 October 2023 (trapped, photographed).
Initially identified in the field on 20 October 2023 as the congeneric Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, before photographs were circulated online and an alternative identification of Western Olivaceous Warbler Iduna opaca was suggested. On 21 October field observations supported this suspicion, and on being trapped for the purposes of ringing biometrics confirmed the identification as Western Olivaceous Warbler, which was later further supported genetically by sequencing of one mitochondrial gene.
Western Olivaceous Warbler has previously been recorded as an autumn vagrant in northern Europe to Sweden and Germany and is not known in captivity.
Earlier published records of Western Olivaceous Warbler in Britain – in Pembrokeshire on 23 September to 3 October 1951, and on the Isles of Scilly 3-4 October 1961 and 30 September to 2 October 1962 – were reviewed by the Committee in 2005 and found to be insufficiently substantiated (Ibis 142: 177, 147: 248).
Oriental Pratincole – A new first record
13th July 1908) (© Bob McGowan)
Second-calendar-year or older, female, 13 July 1908, Eilean Mòr, Flannan Isles, Outer Hebrides, specimen at National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (Accession number NMS.Z 1908.130), pre-dates the previously accepted first record of this species and is therefore accepted as the first British record (Ibis 133: 218).
This pratincole specimen collected at Eilean Mòr, Flannan Isles, Outer Hebrides and deposited at the Royal Scottish Museum was historically identified as a Collared Pratincole. As part of a review of early historical records of Collared Pratincoles, a number of pratincole specimens located in public collections were examined, with this individual reidentified as an Oriental Pratincole – primarily on account of its diagnostic short outermost tail feathers. This reidentification was later supported genetically by sequencing of one mitochondrial gene.
The record was judged against published BOURC criteria for historical records (Ibis 160: 936-942) and found to be acceptable as a new first British record of Oriental Pratincole.
13 August 2024
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