Rare Birds in Spain Blog

Distribution map of Junco hyemalis in N America ( Source: Birds of North America online ) On 27.7.2011, Stephen Chorley, an UK based birder saw a Slate-coloured Junco ( Junco hyemalis ) in Mallorca. He posted a few days after this message to the rarebirdspain facebook page : Whilst visiting Mallorca last week I saw a Dark-eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis of the race Slate-coloured Junco. Seen on Wednesday, 27th July 2011, at 1330 adjacent to the last house and scrub land at the south end of Cala Morlanda, East Mallorca. Many other good birds seen whilst on the island but this was the one rarity worthy of mentioning, so that others might benefit from visiting this area. This bird is rare in the UK, so must be pushing the boundaries here. Stephen Chorley He kindly sent us three photos of the site he saw the bird and a request to broadcast the news to see if anyone can attempt relocating the bird. Regarding the location, he added as follows: On the road between the road signs of Cala M...

Wilson's Storm Petrel ( Oceanites oceanicus ) off Cariño, August 2008 © Juan Sagardía. Featured in August 2008 page of Rare Birds in Spain with other observations In the recent years, every August chronicle of Rare Birds in Spain has been crowded with stunning records and photos of rare seabirds recorded off Estaca de Bares and Ortegal capes. One of the best, if not the best, pelagic seawatch in W Europe even outnumbering in target species and numbers those reference venues from Britai, is about to dissapear forever. The ' Aula do Mar ' service offered by Cariño town council, in the A Coruña province, Galicia, just in the Estaca de Bares and Ortegal capes area (NW Spain corner) has been cancelled by the new government of the Cariño town council . Despite arguments on economic sustainability of the service have been argued, it is not clear if the benefits coming from touristic impact, knowledge of the ' Cariño ' name abroad and putting this small 4800 inhabitants ...

© Léa Beligné, Tarragona, 4.3.2011 On 4.3.2011 Léa Beligné, a SEO/BirdLife volunteer from Riet Vell reserve, Delta de l’Ebre, visited Tarragona city and found a large white and black raven close to the roman amphiteater. The bird could be approached and some photos were taken, two of which are enclosed here. The bird was in good shape and was carrying a green PVC ring with letters ‘CY’ on its left leg. Once shown these pictures to Josep Tantull, Roser Solé and RG at Riet Vell on 9.3 the bird was immediately identified as a Pied Crow ( Corvus albus ), a species that has been recorded before in other places of Spain. Being close to the Tarragona harbour, the possibility of a ship-assistance arrival was a possibility to take into account, despite the ‘odd’ pvc ring that did not appear in any ringing webpage neither European or African. Contact was quickly made with Albert Cama, the Tarragona birdwatcher, who lives close to the sighting area. That very morning the loud and harsh call of ...

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...

The 25th official report of rare birds seen in Spain is due for publication in Ardeola journal volume 57(2) of 2010. It contains 28 colour photos of rarities sent by the authors to rarezas@seo.org to become part of the archive of accepted rarities records in Spain. Have you been to Spain? Did you see rarities? Drop us a message, thanks! The report abstract is enclosed below. SUMMARY.—Report on rare birds in Spain 2008. This is the 25th annual report of the Spanish rarities committee ( Comité de Rarezas de SEO/BirdLife ). Up to 294 new accepted records from 89 rare bird taxa are given (acceptance rate of 84%). Additions to the Spanish List were the first observation assigned to the species pair Zino’s/Fea’s petrel Pterodroma madeira/feae , the first Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis , Arctic Warbler Phylloscopus borealis and Kumlien's gull Larus glaucoides of the nearctic race kumlieni . It has also been a first record for Spain the observation of an Egyptian Plover Pluvianus aegypt...