Chestnut-eared Bunting admitted British List

Chestnut-eared Bunting: Fair Isle, Shetland. (Photo: Deryk Shaw)	Chestnut-eared Bunting: Fair Isle, Shetland. (Photo: Deryk Shaw)
Chestnut-eared Bunting: Fair Isle, Shetland. (Photo: Nic Hallam)	Chestnut-eared Bunting: Fair Isle, Shetland. (Photo: Deryk Shaw)

The British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee (BOURC) has accepted the record of a Chestnut-eared Bunting (Emberiza fucata) (of the nominate subspecies fucata) seen on Fair Isle, Shetland, on 15th-20th October 2004 as the first British record.

The species has a patchy breeding range from Japan in the east, west through the Korean peninsula, southern and central China, the western Himalayas, Nepal, Kashmir and Pakistan. The nominate migratory subspecies fucata has a breeding distribution that is wholly east of Lake Baikal. Some of the known populations of nominate fucata, in the lower Yangtze and Fujian regions of China, are within the range of other vagrants known to occur in Britain. However, only a handful of vagrant species have breeding distributions that are wholly east of Lake Baikal.

Given the restricted and far eastern distribution, Chestnut-eared Bunting would appear to be an unlikely vagrant to Britain, although its range does overlap the ranges of known vagrant species. It is not currently known in captive bird trade (but there is some evidence that it has been previously traded). In addition, the outbreak of Avian Influenza in the Far East in 2004 curtailed legitimate trade of captive birds between the Far East and Europe. These bans were in place during autumn 2004 and would reduce the risk of captive origin even more (although a man was caught smuggling two Crested Hawk-eagles (infected with Avian Influenza) into Europe from Thailand at this time, indicating that illegal trade in wild birds continued throughout the ban).

The age of this individual, the date, the location and associated eastern vagrants are all supportive of natural vagrancy. The support cast of eastern vagrants included another first for Britain (and the Western Palaearctic), Rufous-tailed Robin, which was also found on Fair Isle later that week on 23rd October, and also coincided with an Eastern Crowned Warbler in Finland. All three species are from the far Eastern Palearctic.

Bob McGowan, Chairman of BOURC, commented "However unlikely it might have seemed to some, the credentials for natural vagrancy of the Fair Isle record were solidly based. As a trapped bird, the biometrics and plumage characters established it as an individual from the migratory population, nominate fucata. Its age also conformed to the usual pattern of first winter eastern vagrants, although it was not possible to ascertain the sex of the bird. The Committee analysed in considerable detail the migration timings, routes and distances of the species and this showed that a mid-October arrival date at Fair Isle was plausible for a vagrant Chestnut-eared Bunting. Certainly the support cast of other eastern vagrants, and in particular the Rufous-tailed Robin, virtually coincident at Fair Isle, was considered highly significant."

As there was no strong ground for doubt about its wild origins, the Committee agreed to accept this to Category A of the British List.

The British List stands at 573 species (Category A = 553; Category B = 10; Category C = 10).