The big stories
The Hebridean isle hosted another sensational North American rarity late in the season when a Ruby-crowned Kinglet was found.
A first for Britain alighted on Barra, Ireland scored a Belted Kingfisher and there were two megas in Scotland during a busy month.
BRITAIN’S first Ruby-crowned Kinglet became the latest blockbuster rarity of 2020 when one was found on Barra, Outer Hebrides, on 12 November. It was discovered by island resident Bruce Taylor in the garden of The Manse, in Cuithir in the northwest of the isle. The bird – a female or first-winter – appeared to be fresh in and is thought to have arrived that morning on a fast-moving weather system that had whipped across the Atlantic from North America some 24
hours previously.
It lingered until 19th, after which there has been no sign. Due to the Scottish COVID-19 guidelines, which currently advise against any non-essential travel, it was decided that news wouldn’t be released. With no previous occurrences here the Barra bird marks a British first, as well as a Western Palearctic sixth, some four years after the small island bagged the first Eastern Kingbird for Britain. It serves as no small reminder – and one we’ve had
several of during the last few years – that the Outer Hebrides can pack a seriously heavy punch when it comes to mega North American landbirds.
Ireland has one record, a bird trapped and ringed on Cape Clear, Co Cork, on 27 October 2013.
In a wider Western Palearctic context Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a true mega in every sense of the word. Even the Azores can only claim two records: the first on Flores on 21 October 2013 followed by one on Corvo from
31 October-1 November 2015. The only other two records are both from Iceland: an immature collected at Vestmannaeyjar on 23 November 2017 and another, amazingly enough, also at Vestmannaeyjar, from 10-11 October 1998. ■