Red-flanked Bluetail Tarsiger cyanurus
Rare. North-eastern Europe.
Red-flanked Bluetails: left, Gibraltar Point 12th October 2016 (RichardDoan); centre, Donna Nook 13th October 2016 (Graham Catley);
right, Donna Nook 16th October 2016 (Colin Casey).
The first British and county record was in September 1903 at North Cotes, apparently an adult male, seen by Caton Haigh and his keeper, but the record wasn’t submitted as he was unable to shoot it! His account from The Zoologist read as follows:
On Sept. 21st I shot a couple of Bluethroats on hedges near the coast, and at least one other was seen. On the same day my keeper, who was with me, saw a bird which he described as a Redstart, but with a bluish-grey back and bright blue tail. It perched for a moment on the hedge which he was beating only a few yards before him, and then flew away inland, and could not be found again, although much time was spent in the search. I only saw it in flight at sixty or seventy yards distance, when it seemed blue on both wings and tail. It was probably an example of Nemura cyanura, but, not having obtained it, identity must remain a mystery.
Later, when the record was published in British Birds (1954) the account read as follows:
When beating the hedge running along the land side of the sea bank my keeper (F. Bacon), who was on one side of the hedge, stopped me saying: "On the hedge in front of me is the prettiest bird I have ever seen." Asked to describe it he said : "It is like a large Redstart with the red parts blue." All his attempts to make the bird fly to my side of the hedge failed and after making several short flights along the opposite side it flew inland and could not be found again though searched for carefully for three days. I had several short views of this bird as it passed low in thin parts of the hedge but had no chance of shooting it. The keeper's description seemed to me to be correct. The head and upper back and wings were bluish-grey, the lower back and tail bright blue and there was a white eye stripe and a touch of rust colour on the sides.
Fortunately the bird survived their attention and the record was eventually published in full in British Birds in 1954 (Brit. Birds, 47, 28-29) when it's common name was "Blue-tailed Warbler" was the common name for this species at the time, but the more familiar name of "Red-flanked Bluetail" is used by the editors of British Birds in this note.Given the time lapse between the sighting and its appearance in the literature it was prefixed by the editors of British Bird as ‘probable’ but there was no good reason to doubt it and it has been accepted as the first British record. Since then, there have been another 10 records between 1978-2016, all in the autumn between September 15th-November 15th. This recent increase is concomitant with the species recent and continuing increase on its nearest breeding grounds in Finland where the record was broken in 2020 when 730 territorial males were counted. During 1990-1999 there was an average of one British record per year (including the popular one at Winspit, Dorset in October 1993); this increased to four per year 2000-2009 and then 14 per year, 2010-2018. It became ex-BBRC in 2016. Of interest, BTO data show that 76 had been ringed in the UK , 1909-2021, including 11 in 2020 but no recoveries to date! There were three county records in 2016, but despite its increasing frequency of occurrence it remains one of the most sought after ‘self-found’ rarities.
| Site | First date | Last date | Count | Notes |
| North Cotes | 23/09/1903 | 1 | Adult male, first UK and county record | |
| Donna Nook | 10/10/1978 | 1 | 1CY/female | |
| Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe NNR | 12/10/1988 | 1 | 1CY/female, trapped | |
| Skegness | 22/10/199 | 23/10/1999 | 1 | 1CY/female |
| Gibraltar Point NNR | 15/11/2002 | 16/11/2002 | 1 | 1CY/female |
| Chapel Six Marshes | 06/11/2008 | 1 | 1CY male | |
| Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe NNR | 08/11/2008 | 1 | 1CY/female, trapped | |
| Gibraltar Point NNR | 06/10/2015 | 1 | 1CY female, trapped | |
| Donna Nook | 10/10/2016 | 16/10/2016 | 1 | Age uncertain |
| Gibraltar Point NNR | 12/10/2016 | 14/10/2015 | 1 | 1CY/female |
| Chapel Six Marshes | 22/10/2016 | 23/10/2016 | 1 | 1CY/female |
| Deeping Lakes LNR | 29/11/2022 | 02/12/2022 | 1 | 1CY bird |
Reference
Caton Haigh, G.H. (1904) Migration of birds in north-east Lincolnshire in the autumn of 1903. Zoologist VIII: 291-300.
Editors (1954). An unrecorded occurence of a probable Red-flanked Bluetail in Lincolnshire. British Birds 47(1): 28-30.
Hollom, P. A. D. (1956). The Birds of Lincolnshire (review). British Birds 49: 358-359.
Smith, A. E., and Cornwallis, B. A. (1955). The Birds of Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire Natural History Brochure No. 2.
(Account prepared December 2017; updated with reference to the new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021) December 2022)