Exotic species which have escaped from collections       

An alphabetic list of exotic species which have clearly come from commercial and/or private collections is tabulated here. This gives a clear indication of the types of bird being kept in captivity, although there is no indication of how many are from collections in the county or from elsewhere in Britain. Some of these birds have survived for lengthy periods of time at the sites where they were first noted whereas others were transient.

Occasionally a species turns up which has the initial feeling of a wild vagrant. The two Azure Tits Cyanistes cyanus, trapped at Gibraltar Point on May 11th 2018 was perhaps the most bizarre of these occurrences. One of these birds carried a pink split colour ring on the right tarsus and had damaged primary and tails feathers. The second had minor tail damage and a brood patch. How might the second bird have been categorised had it arrived on its own? Another bird which caused an initial stir was the White-crowned Black Wheatear Oenanthe leucopyga, discovered in a suburban area of Scunthorpe in Dec 2017. It proved incredibly tame and was eventually caught by a visiting birder using his hat and returned to the owner who had an aviary nearby! The owner, a caged bird enthusiast commented that “You can get most birds if you pay”, despite the EU wide wild bird import ban in place since 1 July 2017 which is thought to have reduced the global trade in wild bird species by up to 90%.

Most of the exotic pheasants reported have come from private collections and may survive in the wild for some time, although the female Reeves’s Pheasant at Gibraltar Point which apparently survived from Apr 1994-Jul 1997 eventually went the way of many of its congeners when it was killed by collision with a car.

Some of the wildfowl present problems other than identifying them when they occur, namely hybridization. Various hybrids have been recorded involving some of the species tabulated below, in particular Chiloe Wigeon Mareca sibilatrix, and the shelduck species, Tadorna. The remaining, motley collection of exotic wildfowl, finches, parrots and raptors just serve as a reminder of the array of birds that have been imported to Britain over the years, although many are also bred in captivity. The huge number of captive falcons and their various derivative hybrids (see Saker Falcon, Falco cherrug, above) many of which could never occur naturally look set to pose problems for birders in the field for years to come.

It is most likely the case that this is a conservative list as escapes carry little interest for birders who usually do not bother to report them. For the species listed in the previous section, we ask birders to report their records as the Rare Birds Breeding Panel monitor the fortunes of non-native species which have been proven to be breeding in the wild. The presence of Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus in Nocton Woods for several decades now, breeding on and off, (see account above) is a good example of a non-native bird which may have quietly established itself there without the notice of local birders. Please keep an eye out!