Rare Birds in Spain Blog

Spain has experienced a very good year for rarities in 2010. Within the amount of observations gathered in Rare Birds in Spain recent report pages, we've selected 22 of those, with The rarest of the rare: an overview of 2010 rare bird highlights in Spain in the website > And vote in the poll useful for this blog entry and the webpage in this blog right column! CANDIDATE 1 Branta hutchinsii at Badajoz, January 2010 Photo above:© Antonio Ceballos. 2.1.2010 CANDIDATE 2 Bucephala albeola at Cantabria, January - March 2010 Photo above:© Luis Eduardo Molina. 7.1.2010 CANDIDATE 3 Megaceryle alcyon at Murcia, relocated on January 2010 and present until March 2010 Photo above:© Kris de Rouck 17.1.2010 CANDIDATE 4 Falco rusticolus at Asturies, February 2010 Photo above:© Juan Sagardia. February 2010 CANDIDATE 5 Larus smithsonianus at Madrid on February - May 2010 Photo above:© Delfín González. 7.2.2010 CANDIDATE 6 Motacilla flava feldegg ...

© Juan Antonio Pulido On 3.12.2010 a 1w Flycatcher was was seen at Pedroñeras, Cuenca (Juan Antonio Pulido). Photos were sent to Rafa Torralba and from him to Rarebirdspain. The bird looked like a 1w because of moult of greater coverts. Characters pointing to Collared Flycatcher are the rather grey overall tone, the long primary projection, the rather pale collar, the white on the basis of primaries and the extent of white in the outermost tail feather. © Juan Antonio Pulido However, some authors think it may be a difficult bird and Sergi Sales has pointed towards a photo collage published in May 2008 Rarebirdspain page showing some variation in both Collared and Pied Flycatchers. © Álvaro Díaz 4.5.2008 The question is that the Cuenca bird, despite having long wings, has a rather small white patch in primaries, it looks greyer or no depending on the author (and computer?) and some inner primaries of the Cuenca bird may reflect a plumage aberration. Any opinions? In any case a Flycat...

By mid-late November 2010, both species of 'commoner' Phalaropes: Red-necked ( Phalaropus lobatus ) and Grey ( Phalaropus fulicarius ) have been recorded in coastal wetlands of Murcia, E Spain. While Red-necked is considered a national rarity because of the paucity of records and the still not well documented status of occurrence (albeit it's a non problematic species in terms of identification), Grey Phalarope it is not. This is because of its regular occurrence in the Atlantic but, and this is the interesting case here, it's very rare in Mediterranean Spain. Indeed, thes could be the 1st for Murcia. Hence, the opportunity of watching both of them in a single day it's something to be considered. Thanks to Richard Howard who regularly contributes to Rare Birds in Spain with sightings from the region, as well as other local birders do, we include here two photos and two videos depicting these nice waders. More Red-necked information in the website here . All in al...