Red-winged blackbird sparks frenzy in Scotland

The red- winged blackbird is one of the most common birds in North America: A creature of pigeon- like ubiquity probably best known to Canadians for its annoying penchant to attack them during nesting season.

But on the remote Scottish island of North Ronaldsay, the first- in- Europe appearance of a single red- winged black bird has thrown British birdwatchers into a frantic race to throng north before it’s too late. “There is no telling how long it could stick around, these things tend to be short l i ved once they are found - so that’s why people are travelling from all over the country to get to see it while they can,” Josh Jones with the publication Birdguides told The Daily Telegraph. British birders have chartered at least four airplane trips to the island, with as many as 12 other private aircraft making the journey purely for bird reasons.

Other birders have simply dropped everything to embark on the epic ( by British standards) 18- hour drive to the remote island, which lies as far north as Arctic Quebec.

Ironically, the red-winged blackbird they seek is neither black nor red- winged. Rather, they are seeking out a female, which carries sparrow-like brown markings.

It is the first time a redwinged blackbird has ever been spotted in Europe, leading to speculation that it was either blown across the sea — or hitched a ride on a trans-Atlantic freighter.

Credit for the find goes to Simon Davies with the North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory.

“I could just see its head poking out with a broad s upercillium, yell owish throat, streaked chest and pointed bill; my brain stuttered for a second as I went to myself ‘ ohh, redwing… no, yes … NO!” Davies wrote in an excited blog post describing the find.

Davies’ account of his internal monologue continued, “some kind of blackbird/grackle ‘ thing’? No, grackles are bigger … must be a blackbird … which ones have I seen? Red- winged in Texas, no others, but there are others, females are dark and streaky like that, GOD, it might actually be a redwinged blackbird.’”

The i sl and i s now so packed with birdwatchers that the North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory has had to begin corralling the visitors into designation areas and then sending out a staff member to gently “flush” the blackbird toward them.

“Without the use of this policing technique groups of twitchers ( bird watchers) would simply arrive at the site, fan out over the area and trample the irises that the breeding birds find so important,” wrote the observatory in a statement.

In both 2014 and 2015, a Canadian red-winged blackbird briefly gained fame by making its nest near Ottawa’s Parliament Hill and then spending much of its time attacking parliamentary staffers.