Buff-bellied Pipit (Anthus rubescens), 1st for Spain

On 27.9.2011, a Buff-bellied Pipit (Anthus rubescens) was found at Parque de Bens, Western A Coruña city, Galicia, in NW Spain (Cosme Damián Romai). The news spread through rarebirdspain yahoogroups where the author published three photos here, here and here.

Soon the bird, one of the first transatlantic passerine vagrants recorded in mainland Spain caused expectation and was seen and photographed by other observers: Fernando Pereira's blog here or Pablo Gutiérrez blog here.

The bird remained on 28.9.2011 (Daniel López Velasco, Nacho Castelao, Pablo Fernández García and Cosme Damián Romai; Ricardo Hevia and José Miguel Alonso later) whilst on 29.9.2011 some video footage was obtained and reproduced here (Jose R. Bugallo, David Díaz, David Martínez y David Calleja), courtesy of David Calleja.




The Buff-bellied pipit is a rare vagrant to Europe from its American breeding grounds (see enclosed map from Avibase).


Interestingly, the day previous to the Galician arrival there was one bird at Iceland and three at Scotland (see Tarsiger website for this and other details), in what seems to be an Autumn rich in Atlantic depressions and storms:

22.9.2011
  • Shetland, Scotland, United Kingdom. 1 at Foula, 18th record for Britain.
  • Orkney, Scotland, United Kingdom 2 at North Ronaldsay, 19th record for Britain.
26.9.2011
  • Iceland. 1 at Hafnir, 28th record for Iceland.

This record is the first for Spain of this species and once accepted by the rarities committee will undoubtely included in the A list of the List of the Birds of Spain. Congratulations to all observers.


Resumen. Bisbita pechianteado (Anthus rubescens), primero para España. El 27.9.2011 se encontró un ejemplar de esta especie neártica en un parque de la ciudad de A Coruña, Galicia (C.D.Romai), siendo la primera cita para España de este raro divagante transatlántico. Se han obtenido diferentes fotografias y videos de los que se adjuntan enlaces. De forma interesante cabe citar que pocos dias antes se citaron tres ejemplares en Escocia y uno en Islandia, por lo que el patrón de aparición del ave coruñesa es totalmente compatible con una llegada natural de la especie a España habida cuenta de la movida temporada de perturbaciones atlánticas también.

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