Hundreds of bird watchers invade tiny UK village as rare bird spotted

The sighting of a rare bird from across the Atlantic has drawn a crowd of twitchers to a village in Yorkshire.

It is reportedly the first time a scarlet tanager has been sighted in God’s Own Country, which is a far cry from the songbird’s usual range in the US and South America.

Scores of birdwatchers lined a street in the hopes of getting a glimpse of the bird in Shelf, near Halifax, after reports it had been spotted appeared online.

Geoffrey King, a birdwatcher with 15 years of experience, drove 220 miles from Weybridge, Surrey, to see the bird.

He told the BBC: “It was very exhilarating… I had basically given up. Somebody called and there it was at the top of the tree. It was a great relief to see it.”

Bird Guides said the “stunning news” came when a local photographed the yellow and black bird on their washing line and uploaded the photo to Facebook.

The publication said: “Scarlet Tanager is a mega rarity in Britain, with only seven previous records since the first in 1970.

“It is the third mainland sighting after birds in Cornwall in 1981 and 2011, and the first for a landlocked county.”

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) notes scarlet tanagers are “extremely rare” visitors to Britain and Ireland, with sightings usually in October.

Sightings are “typically” of “duller” juvenile birds with yellower plumage than of breeding males which have bright red bodies, black wings and a black tail.

BTO said the first sightings in the British Isles were on the Isles of Scilly in 1970 and in County Down in 1963.

A migratory bird, scarlet tanagers migrate between the eastern US and lowland South American forests twice a year, flying mostly at night, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

It said the scarlet tanager’s song is often described as sounding like a robin with a cold, with a “repetitive, sing-song warble”.

Populations of the bird have declined by about 14 percent in the past 50 years, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, but the population is said to be stable.

Luke Nash, 22, travelled from Durham for a glimpse of Shelf’s scarlet tanager. He told the BBC: “This is absolutely unprecedented.”