235© British Birds 101 • May 2008 • 235–240

September 2004 was dominated by westerlywinds, and talk of the worst autumn onrecord had filled the Fair Isle Bird Obser-

vatory lounge. The wind finally switched to alight southeasterly on 29th September, and astunning male Red-flanked Bluetail Tarsigercyanurus was discovered that afternoon, spec-tacularly rescuing September from becoming acompletely rarity-free month! October began tomake further amends, with a Lanceolated

Warbler Locustella lanceolata closely followed bya Booted Warbler Hippolais caligata in the firstfew days of the month. As high pressure beganto dominate over northern Europe, a constanteasterly airstream set in, bringing with it a floodof common and scarce migrants.

During lunch on 15th October, HywelMaggs mentioned that he’d had brief views ofan odd ‘Little Bunting’ [Emberiza pusilla] in thebird-cover crop (one planted specifically to

Chestnut-eared Bunting on Fair Isle:new to Britain

Deryk N. Shaw

ABSTRACT A Chestnut-eared Bunting Emberiza fucata was discovered on Fair Isle, Shetland, on 15th October 2004. It remained on the island until

20th October and during its stay it was seen by approximately 120 birders.In the hand it was identified as a first-winter, possibly a male, of the nominate

form, which breeds in northeast Asia to the east of Lake Baikal. Its arrivalcoincided with that of two other vagrants from the Eastern Palearctic,a Rufous-tailed Robin Luscinia sibilans on Fair Isle on 23rd October, and an Eastern Crowned Warbler Phylloscopus coronatus in Finland, also on

23rd October.This represents the first record of Chestnut-eared Bunting for Britain and the Western Palearctic.

Ren Hathway

236 British Birds 101 • May 2008 • 235–240

I eventually caught up with the bird late thatafternoon and in the rapidly fading light I alsothought that it looked a bit odd: surely its tailwas too long, it appeared to lack the black ear-covert surround, and I thought I saw a chestnutrump (but decided I must have been mistaken).I ran through all the other European buntingsbut could not come up with a better fit thanLittle Bunting, and decided that it must be thatspecies. A Little Bunting had been seen in theLeogh ditch on 12th and 14th, and perhaps thiswas the same individual? The long tail wasperhaps just a trick of the light as was thechestnut rump, and I put the lack of black inthe face down to it perhaps being very fresh andhaving buff tips to the feathers which were con-cealing the black. However, it was really nigglingme and I asked my assistant warden, RebeccaNason (RN), to look out for it during censusthe next morning, as it was in her ‘patch’.

The following day, RN reported that thebunting was still present, so after lunch a smallposse went to have a look, but getting goodviews was difficult in the strong wind. It spentmost of its time sheltering in the oats and wasgiving only brief flight views when flushed, butit usually hovered for a second before droppinginto the oats. With these views, however, it wasagreed that it did look odd – and was certainlyNOT a Little Bunting! We pieced together that

it showed characteristicsassociated with LittleBunting, OrtolanBunting E. hortulana andYellowhammer E. cit-rinella but did notentirely fit any of thesespecies. It had an OrtolanBunting-like look, withgreyish nape, pale buffsubmoustachial andthroat, obvious whitisheye-ring and a lightorange-brown washacross the underparts,but also chestnut ear-coverts with a pale spotat the rear, a typicalfeature of Little Bunting.After an hour of poorviews, we were no nearerto making a positiveidentification and thedecision was taken to

attract autumn migrants) at Skadan, near theSouth Lighthouse. He takes up the story: ‘Iarrived at the Skadan crop at about 11.00 hrs. Iwalked along the kale and immediately a tickingbunting flew out and landed momentarily in aclearing, side-on. I thought this must be theLittle Bunting that had been present at LowerLeogh the previous afternoon. I managed toregister the prominent eye-ring but was slightlyperplexed by a number of plumage details. Thebird quickly flew again, this time into densecover in the breezy conditions. I decided toapproach closer and could see it feeding ongrain among the crop. I noticed that it appearedto have bold pale mantle straps, a yellowishwash to the sides of the breast (I never saw thebird front-on) and a less than typical headpattern for Little Bunting. It also appeared to beslightly large in flight for Little Bunting, but Ithought that the windy viewing conditionscould have affected my judgement. I couldn’tthink of anything else it could be apart from aparticularly odd Little Bunting, and texted DNSand Alan Bull (AJB). I left the crop after thebird flew off with the resident flock of HouseSparrows Passer domesticus. I met up with AJBshortly afterwards and discussed some of thefeatures I had seen but when I left the isle thatafternoon, I was still under the impression thatit was just a particularly odd Little Bunting.’

Chestnut-eared Bunting on Fair Isle: new to Britain

127. First-winter Chestnut-eared Bunting Emberiza fucata,Fair Isle, Shetland, October 2004.

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Chestnut-eared Bunting on Fair Isle: new to Britain

trap it. A net was erected and thebird easily coaxed into it.

Once the bird was in thehand, the questions really began.It definitely had a chestnut rumpbut other features (e.g. pale eye-ring, lack of wing-bars, a two-toned bill) ruled out all theobvious suspects (Yellowhammer,Yellow-breasted E. aureola,Chestnut E. rutila, Pine E. leuco-cephalos and Rustic Buntings E.rustica). The bird was taken backto the Observatory, where I tooka full description and detailedmeasurements. Phil Harris thenremembered reading an articleby Steve Votier on vagranteastern buntings (Votier 2001).He returned a few moments laterwith the relevant issue andslapped the page down on thebench in front of me. Therestaring me in the face was a rear-view shot of our bird: Chestnut-eared Bunting E. fucata!

We searched frantically for more informa-tion in the books available to us and, of course,all the features slotted neatly into place –chestnut ear-coverts, obvious whitish eye-ring,partially hidden chestnut breast-band, faintorange-buff wash, longish tail…. We werestunned! We had a first for the WesternPalearctic! Reading the caption beneath thephoto, ‘…Chestnut-eared Buntings breed innortheast China and Korea and are middle- tolong-distance migrants to their winteringgrounds in southeast Asia. This species has notbeen recorded in western Europe, but a bit ofblind optimism never hurts!…’, had us leapinground the room! Measurements established thatit was of the nominate, northerly breeding race,which is a long-distance migrant, while theunmoulted alula feather, pointed rectrices andgrey-brown iris indicated that it was a first-winter.

News was released on the local Shetlandgrapevine and Birdline Scotland. The bird wasthen shown to the assembled crowd of Obser-vatory visitors, staff and interested islanders.Several photos were taken and it was returnedto the Skadan. Here it remained until 20thOctober and was seen by approximately 120 vis-iting birders.

Detailed descriptionGeneral appearanceA medium-sized bunting with typically ‘complicated’plumage. The main features were chestnut ear-covertswith a pale buff spot at the rear; an obvious pale eye-ring; pale buff submoustachial; dark upper-breaststreaking with a partially hidden chestnut bandbelow; and chestnut lower back and rump. Propor-tionately, it had fairly short wings and a long tail.

BehaviourIt did not move far on the ground, feeding among theoat crop with very short hops. When disturbed, itwould fly around the immediate area before droppingback into the crop, always hovering for a second ortwo before it dropped. Occasionally it perched in the(relative) open on some leaning corn stalks. It kept toitself, not really mingling with the sparrow flock orBramblings Fringilla montifringilla.

HeadNarrow yellowish-brown central crown stripe, bor-dered by thicker black- and brown-streaked lateralstripes. Supercilium ginger from bill to eye; wider andmore greyish yellow-brown behind eye, merging withsimilarly coloured nape. Lores grey, distinct creameye-ring. Chestnut ear-coverts were slightly paler-centred and had a noticeable pale buff spot at the rear.The broad, creamy-buff submoustachial ran aroundthe lower border of the ear-coverts. Blackish-streakedmalar, narrow at bill base but widening from the base

128. First-winter Chestnut-eared Bunting Emberiza fucata,Fair Isle, Shetland, October 2004.

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and merging with breast streaking. Chin and throatcreamy-buff, as submoustachial.

UpperpartsNape greyish yellow-brown with just a few darkerflecks. Mantle streaked black on a chestnut back-ground with two broad, light greyish-brown braces.Scapulars chestnut with narrow black centres. Lowerback and rump chestnut with a few narrow blackshaft-streaks, more so on lower rump. Uppertail-coverts dark brown with black shaft-streaks andgreyish edges. Central tail blackish-centred with lightchestnut fringes. Outer tail with much white. Rest oftail blackish with diffuse grey tips. All feathers ofequal age and pointed. Primaries dark, grey-brownedged chestnut-brown, secondaries edged chestnut.Greater coverts black-centred with broad lightchestnut fringes. Median coverts with similar blackcentres (coming to a point) bordered chestnut fadingto buffish-yellow fringing and tip. Lesser covertschestnut with narrow black central streaks. Tertialsblack-centred with light chestnut edging, fading toalmost white fringes and tips. Edging narrow on innerweb and broad on outer web.

UnderpartsYellowish-buff wash across chin, throat and upperbreast. Narrow blackish-streaked malar wideningfrom lower mandible to upper breast, where it mergedwith a gorget of streaks across breast. Below this was a

narrow chestnut band fading to a broad, lightchestnut-yellow band across lower breast. In the handit could be seen that there was actually a broadchestnut band across the lower breast, hidden by lightchestnut fringes. Light buff-tinged chestnut washdown flanks with a few bold brown streaks. Bellywhite, unmarked. Undertail-coverts light buff, tingedchestnut, similar to flanks. Colours of wash to under-parts quite hard to decide owing to apparent changeswith angle and light conditions – appearing buff attimes but yellower at others.

Bare partsBill: upper mandible dark horn, lower mandiblegreyish pink, culmen straight. Legs pink. Iris darkbrown, eye-ring cream, distinct, except for small areaat front which was ginger and therefore less obvious.

CallAn explosive ‘tzic’ similar to that of Rustic Bunting,often delivered (but not always) when flushed orwhen coming in to land.

BiometricsWing length 75 mmTail length 64 mmWeight 21.1 gPrimary projection 4.8 mmEmarginated primaries P3, P4, P5, P6(primaries numbered ascendantly)P2 =P5/P6Wing point P3, P4, P5P6 to wing point 3.1 mmP7 to wing point 7.6 mmP8 to wing point 11.9 mmP9 to wing point 14.4 mmP10 to wing point 16.4 mmSecondaries to wing point 17.0 mmBill length (to skull) 14.8 mmBill length (to feathers) 10.9 mmFat score 1/8Pectoral muscle 1/8

Age and sexThe bird was aged as a first-winter based upon thefact that it had retained the juvenile alula feather,showed pointed rectrices (although adults of thisspecies do have pointed feathers, these are slightlywider and less pointed than those of first-winterbirds) and a grey-brown iris (adults have a chestnutiris). It was sexed as a male on wing length and taillength, based upon criteria outlined in Byers et al.(1995), although BOURC’s view was that it was prob-ably a male, rather than accepting it as a definite male.

Weather conditions and associated arrivals As with the Rufous-tailed Robin Luscinia sibi-lans which arrived on the island on 23rdOctober 2004 (Shaw 2006), it is not possible to

238 British Birds 101 • May 2008 • 235–240

Chestnut-eared Bunting on Fair Isle: new to Britain

129. First-winter Chestnut-eared Bunting Emberizafucata, Fair Isle, Shetland, October 2004.

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predict the timing and dura-tion of the passage of thisfar-eastern bird with anyprecision as the bird hadprobably been en route forsome weeks. During thedays preceding its arrival,conditions over Eurasia sug-gested that a southern routemay have been taken. Thechange in wind direction atthe end of September, after amonth predominated bywesterly winds, was broughtabout by a developing east-ward-moving anticyclone.Only weak easterly windswere present on its southernflank as it moved intoRussia, but another anticy-clone, this time moreintense, took a similar trackacross Scandinavia on 10thOctober before turning southeast into southernRussia by 13th October. A strong east to south-easterly airflow on its southern flank extendedacross Europe from as far east as Kazakhstan,although winds previously in that region wereweak. Strong southwesterly winds to the northof this high-pressure region probably preventeda higher-latitude movement. Indeed, westerlywinds were more frequent than normal overnorthern Asia in October.

Throughout October 2004, the easterlyairstream brought a superb run of rarities toShetland from breeding grounds extendingfrom eastern Europe to western Asia, with manyoriginating from east of the Ural Mountainsand beyond. Heading this list of outstandingrarities were the two species new to the WesternPalearctic, Chestnut-eared Bunting and Rufous-tailed Robin. With these came many ‘lesser’ rar-ities, including Richard’s Anthus richardi,Olive-backed A. hodgsoni and Pechora Pipits A.gustavi, Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola,several ‘Siberian Stonechats’ Saxicola torquatusmaurus, Isabelline Oenanthe isabellina and PiedWheatears O. pleschanka, several White’sThrushes Zoothera dauma and Pallas’sGrasshopper Warblers Locustella certhiola,Lanceolated, Blyth’s Reed Acrocephalus dume-torum, Booted, Pallas’s Leaf Phylloscopus proreg-ulus, Yellow-browed P. inornatus and DuskyWarblers P. fuscatus, Isabelline Shrike Lanius

isabellinus, and Rustic, Little and Yellow-breasted Buntings. Details of the dates and loca-tions of many of these can be found in Rogerset al. (2005) and Shaw (2006).

Distribution Within Asia, Chestnut-eared Bunting has a frag-mented breeding distribution and three recog-nised races. The breeding range of the nominaterace E. f. fucata extends from eastern Trans-baikalia, to the east of Lake Baikal to the upperand middle reaches of the Amur River inextreme eastern Russia, north and east to atleast the region of Khabarovsk, and into north-eastern Mongolia, northeastern China, theKorean Peninsula, and the islands of Hokkaidoand northern Honshu in northern Japan. Thisform is a long-distance migrant, wintering fromsouthern Japan and southern China south tonorthern Thailand, and is the most likely tooccur as a vagrant in western Europe. Two otherraces occur to the south of the nominate form.Both are smaller and either largely resident orshort-distance and/or altitudinal migrants. Therace E. f. kuatunensis breeds in southeast China,where it is a short-distance migrant. It wintersin the southern part of its breeding range, but itis uncertain whether those reaching coastalregions are this form or the nominate. In theHimalayas, E. f. arcuata breeds from the NorthWest Frontier Province, Pakistan, east to Nepal

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Chestnut-eared Bunting on Fair Isle: new to Britain

130. A rarity in the hand on Fair Isle always draws a crowd, the balance of islanders and visiting birders depending on the time of year. Here,Brian Wilson is arriving fresh from repair work at the local school,while two of the younger islanders, Lachlan Shaw (in the Celtic hat) and Lowri Best, are already there. Lachlan, at least, has an island list

that most UK twitchers would be extremely envious of!

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and Darjeeling, India. To the east, it appears tobe absent from Bhutan and the easternHimalayas but reappears in southeastern Tibet,Yunnan, western Guizhou, Sichuan andsouthern Shaanxi provinces, China. TheHimalayan breeders are altitudinal migrantswhich winter in the foothills and adjacentplains of northern India and Pakistan, whilebirds wintering in Bangladesh, northeasternIndia and Burma may originate from Chinesepopulations, but there are no ringing recoveriesto support this.

Having a breeding distribution that liesentirely to the east of Lake Baikal, Chestnut-eared Bunting would appear to be an unlikelyvagrant to reach Britain. However, its range doesoverlap with the ranges of two other vagrantbuntings which have reached Britain: Black-faced E. spodocephala and Yellow-browedBunting E. chrysophrys, although both do breedwell to the west of Lake Baikal as well as east of it.

Likelihood of escapeRare buntings are sometimes tainted with thestigma of being escapes from captivity. In itsreview of this record, BOURC investigated fullythe likelihood of this bird originating from acaptive source. Chestnut-eared Bunting is not

currently known in captive-bird trade (butthere is some evidence that it has been previ-ously traded). In addition, the outbreak of avianinfluenza in the Far East in 2004 curtailed legit-imate trade of captive birds between the FarEast and Europe. These bans were in placeduring autumn 2004 and would reduce the riskof captive origin even more (although a manwas caught smuggling two Changeable Hawk-eagles Spizaetus cirrhatus (infected with avianinfluenza) into Europe from Thailand at thistime, indicating that illegal trade in wild birdscontinued throughout the ban). The age of theFair Isle bird, the date, the location and associ-ated eastern vagrants are all supportive ofnatural vagrancy.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Norman Elkins for preparing a summary of theprevailing weather conditions at the time.

References

Byers, C., Olsson, U. & Curson, J. 1995. Buntings andSparrows. Pica Press, Robertsbridge, Sussex.

Rogers, M. J., & the Rarities Committee. 2005. Report onrare birds in Great Britain in 2004. Brit. Birds 98: 628–694.

Shaw, D. 2006. Rufous-tailed Robin on Fair Isle: new toBritain. Brit. Birds 99: 236–241.

Votier, S. 2001. Eastern buntings: a photo-gallery. BirdingWorld 14: 390–396.

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Chestnut-eared Bunting on Fair Isle: new to Britain

Deryk N. Shaw, Fair Isle Bird Observatory, Fair Isle, Shetland ZE2 9JU

EDITORIAL COMMENT Bob McGowan, BOURC Chairman, commented: ‘However unlikely it mighthave seemed to some, the credentials for natural vagrancy of the Fair Isle record were solidly based. Asa trapped bird, the biometrics and plumage characters established it as an individual from the migra-tory population, nominate fucata. Its age also conformed to the usual pattern of first-winter easternvagrants, although it was not possible to ascertain the sex of the bird. The Committee analysed in con-siderable detail the migration timings, routes and distances of the species and were happy that a mid-October arrival date on Fair Isle was plausible for a vagrant Chestnut-eared Bunting. Certainly thesupport cast of other eastern vagrants, and in particular the Rufous-tailed Robin, virtually coincidenton Fair Isle, was considered highly significant. As there was no strong ground for doubt about its wildorigins, the Committee agreed to accept this onto Category A of the British List.’

Colin Bradshaw, BBRC Chairman, commented: ‘As Deryk has suggested, Chestnut-eared Buntingwasn’t on many birders’ radar and those who have seen the species have probably experienced win-tering birds in Japan or in the foothills of the Himalayas, or spring migrants in China. It is thus notsurprising that Fair Isle was slightly unprepared. Although various biometrics overlap with both Littleand Rustic Bunting, its weight range of 20–25 g is nearly 50% greater than Little and is more akin toCirl Bunting E. cirlus. The combination of size, chestnut cheeks, well-marked eye-ring and chestnutrump just about rules everything else out. Luckily, this was not a young female as they often lackobvious chestnut on the face and are more difficult to identify. Perhaps the combination of prominentpale eye-ring and submoustachial stripe with a chestnut rump and warm wash on the flanks wouldhint at what it was, but any such record would need to be extremely well documented.’

Footnote: Readers may be interested to know that, in addition to traditional travel routes to Shetland(flights from Scottish airports and the overnight ferry from Aberdeen), a direct flight from Stanstedairport is now available from Atlantic Airways www.flyshetland.com