Rare Bird Alert

Continuing birds in the ABA Area include the small flock of Brown Jays (ABA Code 4) in south Texas, the Bahama Mockingbird (4) and La Sagra’s Flycatcher (4) in Florida, and both a Red-flanked Bluetail (4) and a Little Stint (4) in California.

Ross’s Gull is always an exciting find in the Lower 48 or the southern tier of Canada, and a nice immature bird seen in Cook, Illinois, delighted a ton of birders in the Chicago area. The bird was also observed flying into Indiana waters.

One recent 1st record to report this week, from Maryland, where a Great Kiskadee was photographed in Frederick. Subsequent searches for this species, which has a significant pattern of vagrancy, but not a significant pattern of sticking around in places it turns up, were sadly unsuccessful.

One of the more shocking reports this week came from a bird documented, but not seen by any individual, back in November of last year. A trail cam set up on the headquarters property of the tech company Google in Santa Clara documented a California, and Lower 48 1st, Siberian Rubythroat (4) in November of 2022. The photos were not discovered until recently and then uploaded to iNaturalist where the bird was quickly identifited. This east Asian songbird is most commonly encountered in the ABA Area in Alaska, but there is a record in Ontario in addition to this one.

Ohio’s first Boreal Chickadee in 40 years was well-photographed at a feeder in Portage. 

And in St Pierre et Miquelon, a Gray Heron (4) was also seen and photographed.

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.