What's the rarest bird you've seen

[StuartDH]

What's the rarest bird you've ever seen? It can either be rare for your local area, or rare across the world.

[John]

The rarest bird I have seen is one of the rarest in the world. A Slender billed Curlew on mainland Greece, near the Albanian border. It was on a wetland which actually lies opposite Corfu.

It has been unofficially recognised by Birdlife International as a valid find. They couldn't officially accept it as I had no back up proof of the find (Photo's, other birders etc) but my description together with a description of its behaviour was enough to satisfy them that I had seen the bird.

John

[Tanny]

An Eyrian Grass Wren and a Scarlet-breasted Parakeet on the same day.

[John]

I have just come back from 12 days in Turkey and found some impressive birds including:-

Lammergeier
See See partridge
Spur-winged Lapwing
Desert Finch
Dead Sea Sparrow
Black-bellied sandgrouse
Black Francolin
Armenian Gull
Pied Kingfisher
Graceful Prinia
Little Swift
Laughing Dove
Eastern Rock Nuthatch
Alpine Chough
Radde's Accentor
Citrine Wagtail
Caspian Snowcock
Red-fronted Serin
Snowfinch
Syrian Woodpecker
Spectacled Bulbul
Finsch's Wheatear
Krupers Nuthatch
Chestnut sided Petronia
Menetrie's Warbler

All 25 new lifers for me. Alltogether we had 203 species for the trip but the above 25 lifers will satisfy me for many a year to come.

The very first one (Lammergeir) is a bird that has been top of my wanted list for years and we had the privilege of one gliding fairly close to us for almost ten minutes. Brilliant.

John

[Imaginos]

Nordmann's Greenshank is (I think) the rarest bird I've seen. I did see the 'Slender billed Curlew' that turned up at Minsmere a couple of years back but remain to be convinced it wasn't just a funny juvenile.

[paul m]

The assumption is that birds evolved from dinosaurs. This bit of speculation suggests that alligators and birds may have shared common sncestors:
BBC News - Alligators and birds share lung structure and ancestor
... and that there are similarities in breathing mechanisms.

[The Woodman]

This research was carried out in the governments genetic research establishment near Grange over Sands.

A leaked photo of a mutant reached the public last year and I posted it in Wild About Britain.



Just before the breeding centre closed due to funding cuts one of the disgruntled employees released the bird in the photo on Grange duck pond.

[goosey]

Excellent connection to Paul's post Woodman, and very worrying .
I promise to keep an eye out for this weird and wonderful looking thing next time I am over, I won't be swimming near Grange in future .

[paul m]

Originally Posted by The Woodman

This research was carried out in the governments genetic research establishment near Grange over Sands.

A leaked photo of a mutant reached the public last year and I posted it in Wild About Britain.

Just before the breeding centre closed due to funding cuts one of the disgruntled employees released the bird in the photo on Grange duck pond.

Ho, ho a rara avis for sure.
I put the reference into this thread by accident but ought to leave it now in case anyone comes up with a stranger beast!

[Silverwolf]

I found 15 Pacific Loons flocking together at Jasper in Alberta, Canada on the 1st October. The Pacific Loons are not only rare migrants but every record has been of 1 -3 birds. I probably should have reported this to someone...

[goosey]

Originally Posted by Silverwolf

I found 15 Pacific Loons flocking together at Jasper in Alberta, Canada on the 1st October. The Pacific Loons are not only rare migrants but every record has been of 1 -3 birds. I probably should have reported this to someone...

If you have photographic eveidence I suppose you still can report your sighting, I am sure it would be of interest to the birding people in Canada. I don't know if tonyd555 might know who 'they' might be, he is in Canada, you never know!

(If you do have the piccie post them in the gallery - I would love to see them for myself, I have never even heard of Pacific Loons let alone seen one.)

[Silverwolf]

They look a lot like Black-throated Divers. The only thing these can be mistaken for is the Arctic Loon which cannot be distinguished from these photos as far as I'm aware (plus this species is only found in the far northern reaches of Alaska so is more unlikely).
These were at Patricia Lake (typically the far side of the lake) and there were many other people there seemingly more interested in the mountains that are there every day, if you asked them about these birds they would not be able to tell you anything.


Pictures are not brilliant but they came out pretty well considering how far away they were (I also had to resize them because they were larger than the file limit), and I can only count 13 in the large picture I took, so if I made a report I can only really support evidence for 13.

These sorts of things do tend to make me more intent to believe these First Nation/ Aboriginal things a lot more for more reasons than one...but I won't get into this now.

[paul m]

Originally Posted by Silverwolf

I found 15 Pacific Loons flocking together at Jasper in Alberta, Canada on the 1st October. The Pacific Loons are not only rare migrants but every record has been of 1 -3 birds. I probably should have reported this to someone...

BSC-EOC seems to be the Canadian equivalent of BTO. I'm not sure how you'd contact them but worth having a try?
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[tamsin]

i've only seen one male indigo bunting, in central missouri, but i don't know how rare they are for birdwatchers to see. southeast kansas backroads are a great place to see red-tailed hawks and blue herons too, i've seen many of them over the years.