Britain's Rarest Bird

On the face of it the concept of rarest birds seems an easy one, and when talking about the world’s rarest bird, it is easy to quantify in terms of individual birds or breeding pairs, although there is also always the caveat of number of birds in the wild or in captivity. When it comes to narrowing the concept down to a single nation though, difficulties arise.

The question of which is Britain’s rarest bird, brings forth a number of different answers based on any number of criteria.

Most birds tend, to a greater or lesser degree, migrate, and Britain throughout the year attracts birds from continental Europe, the Arctic Circle and Africa. Occasionally though vagrants also appear, normally individual birds that shouldn’t be here, often getting lost in their own migrations. American wigeons and Baltimore orioles have been spotted within Britain, and could subsequently be called Britain’s rarest birds, although of course they are not British birds.

American Wigeon (Male) - Alan D. Wilson, www.naturespicsonline.com - CC-BY-SA-3.0

If a bird stays in Britain then this is another criterion that could be used to class a bird as Britain’s rarest, and indeed a single black-browed albatross made Scotland his home for many years. The albatross though, normally found around the Southern Oceans couldn’t reproduce so a population could never be established.

The need for an established population for a bird to be classed as rare is one of the reasons why birds are often counted as breeding pairs. In terms of breeding pairs, the Eurasian Eagle Owl could claim to be Britain’s rarest birds, as a pair have been breeding in recent years in Yorkshire. The Eagle Owl though is not a British native, and the pair of owls are probably a pair released, accidentally or on purpose, from captivity. Eagle owls should probably be classed as invasive, as they have the potential to disrupt the British ecology. Equally though, there are many other non-native birds to have escaped from captivity, some which have become established.

There are though some other birds which are often classed as Britain’s rarest. The Golden Oriole, Oriolus oriolus is a summer visitor to Britain, when the southeast of England becomes home to anywhere between five and seventeen breeding pairs. Likewise Common Cranes, Grus grus, have started breeding once again in Britain. Other rare summer breeders also include Montagu’s Harrier, Circus pygargus, and the Honey Buzzard, Pernis apivorus.

Oriolus oriolus - Paco Gomez - CC-BY-SA-2.0

A final category for rare British birds might well include those that are resident all year round, with the likes of the Redwing, Turdus iliacus, where only a handful of breeding pairs make their home in Scotland. The Redwing though is far from rare in the winter, when hundreds of thousands migrate to Britain. Far rarer though might well be the Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis, which may well become an established British bird in the future, although the current population is perhaps a hundred birds, but if sequential breeding seasons for the bird occur then it might well be Britain’s rarest bird.

Cattle Egret - Atamari - CC-BY-SA-2.0

Many birds can be called Britain’s rarest, and there are many discussions that could be had about the validity of any claims made. It is perhaps better to consider what can be done to help birds that are endangered, and hence rare, to ensure that future generations can view these birds in the wild.

Copyright - First Published 6th September 2011