July 18, 2025
Continuing rarities in the ABA Area include Yellow Grosbeak (ABA Code 4) in Colorado, the Kelp Gull (4) in Wisconsin, the Steller’s Sea-Eagle (4) in Newfoundland, and the Cattle Tyrant (5) in Texas.
We start in California, where a White-winged Tern (4) in San Diego Co is a notable for the ABA Area, but exceptional for the west. Most records of this Old World marsh tern come from the northeast, where it is slightly less then annual. This is only California’s 3rd record, and the first in more than 20 years. Alaska also has a dozen or so records, but the aside from the previous two California records, this species has not been recorded closer than the western Great Lakes.
It has been a phenomenal week for rare Pterodromas in the ABA Area. A whale-watching trip out of Essex Co, Massachusetts, managed a far bigger sighting – at least figuratively speaking – in the form of a Juan Fernandez Petrel (4), representing a 1st record for both Massachusetts and the north Atlantic. A regular visitor in the ABA Area only to Hawaii, this species has occurred in the continental ABA only once before, an equally shocking sighting in Arizona following the landfall of Hurricane Hannah in 2016. This is the fourth record in the Atlantic Ocean, though all three previous sightings were in the south Atlantic, most recently a wrecked bird in Brazil in 2024.
And Alaska joins the fun with its 1st record of Hawaiian Petrel, spotted in the Bering Sea just north of Dutch Harbor. Hawaiian Petrel has come quite close to Alaska waters in the past, with previous records from near Haida Gwaii in British Columbia and from international waters south of the Aleutians.Also noteworthy for the period, an Oriental Cuckoo (5) was photographed on St Paul Island.
Elsewhere in the ABA Area, a Rufous-capped Warbler (3) has been present in Santa Cruz Co, in southeast Arizona for several days.
Ontario had a Brown Booby (3) seen on Lake Erie in Haldimand Co.
Notable for Quebec was a White-faced Ibis in Centre-du-Québec.
Good birds for Maine include Fork-tailed Flycatcher (3) in York Co, and a Tufted Puffin, present for a few summers now, seen on and off near several of the offshore islands.
In Connecticut, nice finds include a White Ibis in Guilford Co and a Swallow-tailed Kite in Southbury.
Omissions and errors are not intended, but if you find any please message blog AT aba.org and I will try to fix them as soon as possible. This post is meant to be an account of the most recently reported birds. Continuing birds not mentioned are likely included in previous editions listed here. Place names written in italics refer to counties/parishes. Readers should note that none of these reports has yet been vetted by a records committee. All birders are urged to submit documentation of rare sightings to the appropriate state or provincial committees. For full analysis of these and other bird observations, subscribe to North American Birds, the richly illustrated journal of ornithological record published by the ABA.
