Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin (BBRC)

Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin Cercotrichas galactotes

Vagrant. Southern and eastern Europe.

Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin trapped at Butlin's holiday camp Ingoldmells, near Skegness on 4th September 1963.

Photo courtesy of Barrie Wilkinson.

One all too distant record in September 1963 of one trapped near to the sewage treatment works in the grounds of Butlin’s Holiday Camp, Ingoldmells.  Although it was thought to be the nominate western race, detailed examination of the photographs at a much later date showed that, based on plumage tone and tail pattern, it was one of the eastern races, most likely C.g. syriaca or familiaris. The fresh remiges and neat pale fringes and tips to the greater coverts show that it was a 1CY bird (Vinicombe and Cottridge 1996). A very interesting account by one of Britain’s top birders in Slack (2009) tells of his receipt of the news of this bird by postcard and subsequent tortuous journey from Norfolk to Skegness, only to be denied entry by the ‘uniform’ on the gate at Butlin’s and ultimately failing to see the bird from a public footpath overlooking the sewage plant. In the event of a recurrence, news would travel slightly more quickly.

There have been three British records prior to 1949 and now six since (the last two in 1980 and 2020). This species was one of the ‘Holy Grails’ for British birders for 40 years until the Norfolk bird turned up at Stiffkey Marsh in October 2020. It is a polytypic species with five races, three in Western Europe and Asia and two in Africa. The first three are migratory and winter in the northern Afro-tropics including the Sahel.

Rufous Warbler in Lincolnshire, September 2nd, 1963: first county record.

by F. J. Lambert.

Note: we are grateful for permission to reproduce this account which is © British Birds, published in volume 58, 1965. 

Circumstances

On 2nd September 1963, at the north end of Butlin's Holiday Camp, near Skegness, Lincolnshire, I noticed a brownish bird with a red tail perched on a fence about 50 yards away. It flew down to the ground, displaying a broad, fan-shaped, chestnut-red tail tipped with white spots. Through a telescope I could see that its upper-parts were a warm sandy-brown and its underparts pale buff, and that it had a pale superciliary stripe. It frequently jerked its tail up and down and sometimes erected it vertically. I identified the bird as a Rufous Warbler Agrobates galactotes*. After a while it flew off to a small sewage-farm behind the fence, where I could not follow it. The following morning, I found the bird again and was able to watch it from a distance of about ten yards. I could now see that its legs were long and greyish-flesh in colour; in flight a black subterminal bar showed clearly on the tail-feathers. I went to Gibraltar Point Observatory and fetched R. B. Wilkinson, C. Devlin, E. T. Lamb, and A. Sykes, who then watched it with me. Attempts to catch it were unsuccessful, but the next day, 4th September, it was trapped and ringed by RBW. The following is a summary of the detailed description which was taken.

Description

Plumage generally very abraded and body feathers falling out; no sign of new plumage on either body or wings; feathers round vent very wet with excrement adhering to them. Upper-parts: dark brown stripe through eye, with whitish-buff superciliary extending from base of bill to well behind eye; crown and mantle warm ginger-buff, rump more rufous than mantle but not as bright as tail; secondary, median, and lesser coverts as mantle but with pale edges; primary coverts and bastard wing much darker and more contrasted with rufous edges to outer webs. Tail: feathers very abraded at tips; generally bright rufous and central pair entirely so; second pair from centre each had small black spot near tip; third pair each had black subterminal bar with rufous tip; fourth, fifth and outer pairs had broad black subterminal bats tipped to a progressively greater extent with white; upper side of tail showed no markings when closed, while underside was dull rufous with white tip and black subterminal bar. Underparts: upper breast and throat buff; belly and under tail-coverts white. Soft parts: eye dark brown; bill quite stout with upper mandible slightly decurved at tip; upper mandible horn brown, lower mandible whitish at base and horn brown at tip; legs greyish-flesh, claws horn-coloured. Measurements: wing 88 mm., bill 18 mm., tarsus 31.8 mm, tail 72 mm.

It was decided that the bird was an adult male of the western form A. g. galactotes. After being photographed by Miss F. E. Crackle, A.S. and myself, it was released and flew strongly away to its usual feeding ground. I watched the bird on each of the next two days and, though I then left the area, RBW and others recorded it up to and including the 9th. It was seen to tug at the base of a tuft of grass and to wipe its bill after feeding in the manner of a Song Thrush Turdus philomelos. It was once pursued by a Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita which had been mobbing it on a fence, but no other birds were seen to attack it. I never saw it perch on a bush or tree, but it once hovered above some docks and thistles. With the exclusion of the Hastings Rarities (see Brit. Birds, 55: 366), this is the eighth record for the British Isles, and it is the first for Lincolnshire and the east coast as a whole.

* Modern taxonomy identifies the species as Cercotrichas galactotes, Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin. It has had various common names through time including Rufous Warbler, Brown-backed Warbler (western race), Grey-backed Warbler (eastern race) and Rufous Bush Chat.

Reference

Cottridge, D.M. and Vinicombe, K. (1966) Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland: A photographic record. Collins, London.

Lambert, F.J. (1965) Rufous Warbler in Lincolnshire. British Birds 58: 221-222.

(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included December 2022)