Crowds of birdwatchers have continued to flock to a quiet cul-de-sac for a second day after a rare sighting of a species perched on a garden washing line. The report of the scarlet tanager in Shelf, near Halifax, is believed to be the first time one of the birds has been sighted in Yorkshire. The stocky songbird normally travels between the eastern United States and lowland South American forests twice a year. One twitcher who made an early morning journey from London described catching a glimpse of the creature as "exhilarating".
Dozens of birdwatchers assembled along the street after initial reports that the bird had been sighted were shared online and on social media. On Tuesday, the road continued to be packed with crowds pointing cameras and binoculars towards a particular suburban garden.
A Rare Sight for Birdwatchers
Geoffrey King, who has been birdwatching for 15 years, made the 220-mile (354km) trip north from Weybridge in Surrey to West Yorkshire in the early hours of Monday. He arrived on scene at 09:30 GMT but it was a further five hours before a hushed murmur rippled through the crowd, signalling the bird had become visible. "It was very exhilarating," he said. Mr King, 67, had been packing up his tripod and was ready to book a hotel when he saw the bird. "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," he enthused. The scarlet tanager was Mr King's 478th species spotted in the UK, he added.
Another avian aficionado, who gave his details simply as Paul from London, said it had been an early start to get to the site in good time. "I got up at five o'clock this morning and was on the road for 05:30," the 61-year-old said. "The older I get, the more it blows my mind that something the size of a sparrow can fly across the ocean, 3,000 miles (4,828km), to get here. It's extraordinary." He said it had been his first sighting of the species in nearly five decades of birdwatching.
A Bird Blown Off Course
According to the American Bird Conservancy, the scarlet tanager's song is often described as "like a robin with a cold". Also hoping to hear it among the assembled twitchers was Luke Nash, who made the trip from Durham. "I saw it online last night and headed straight down," the 22-year-old said. "This is absolutely unprecedented. The last sighting was something like 10 years ago. I was a bit suspicious when I heard it was here. I was dawdling and playing with my camera, looking at my phone and then someone shouted it was coming in and then the camera came out of the bag and the binoculars were up." The scarlet tanager is Mr Nash's 435th species spotted in Britain.
Another birdwatcher, Matt O'Sullivan, said the scarlet tanager's appearance was the first recorded on the UK mainland, as other sightings had been on "remote" islands. He added: "This bird will have been born late spring or early summer in the eastern United States or Canada and has somehow found its way all the way to West Yorkshire. Most likely it was carried across the Atlantic by a low pressure system and has been here ever since. Typically this species winters in Central America, migrating across the Gulf of Mexico or through Florida. There have only been 13 previous records of this species in the UK and Ireland but they have almost always been on remote islands so this is essentially the first bird that everyday folk can go and see - hence the massive crowd." Website Bird Guides said on X that the sighting was believed to be the first in Yorkshire. "Never before seen in Yorkshire, the first-winter male scarlet tanager is just the eighth British record and the first since 2014," it said. According to Cornell University's All about Birds website, the male breeding birds have a bright red body and black wings and tails, while females and juvenile birds have a yellowish-green body. It is usually the duller yellowish birds which are spotted in the UK, having been swept off course by storms as they migrate south in the autumn, the website said.
A Birdwatching Frenzy
One man among the throng had travelled a little less far than other enthusiasts - he had journeyed from a few hundred metres away in the village. The temporary twitcher had been walking his dog when he spotted the crowds and decided to join them, declaring that he would be "chuffed to bits" to see the American visitor. The bird, believed to be a scarlet tanager, arrived in Shelf, near Halifax, after being blown off course by strong winds from a hurricane in North America. Normally, the bird makes two annual trips between lowland South American woods and the eastern United States. But the rare scarlet tanager appears to have been blown off course to the quiet street Yorkshire, attracting dozens of birdwatchers from across the UK.
The bird’s song is often described as sounding like a “robin with a cold”, according to the American Bird Conservancy. Females and juvenile birds have a yellowish-green body, while male breeding birds have a bright red body with black wings and tails, according to Cornell University’s All About Birds website. Website Bird Guides said on X that the sighting was believed to be the first in Yorkshire. “Never before seen in Yorkshire, the first-winter male scarlet tanager is just the eighth British record and the first since 2014,” it said. The birds have thick, rounded bills for catching insects and eating fruit.
One birdwatcher, who made the journey from London, described the spotting as “exhilarating”. Another one, Luke Nash, who made the trip from Durham, told the BBC: “I was a bit suspicious when I heard it was here. I was dawdling and playing with my camera, looking at my phone and then someone shouted it was coming in and then the camera came out of the bag and the binoculars were up.”
A Rare Bird, A Unique Opportunity
Hundreds of bird lovers flocked to a sleepy West Yorkshire cul-de-sac this morning to catch a glimpse of an ultra-rare bird from America not seen in Britain for a decade. Around 300 bird watchers crowded into the road in Shelf, West Yorkshire, where the scarlet tanager was first spotted on Monday perched on a washing line. It is thought the small yellow and black bird arrived in the UK after being blown off course by strong winds from a hurricane in North America. Scarlet tanagers usually migrate to northwestern South America for the winter months.
Some of the assembled twitchers had travelled hundreds of miles to see the unusual species, which was last glimpsed in the UK back in 2014. Dave Stone, 75, said he had travelled 280 miles from his home in Exeter to the street in West Yorkshire, in the early hours of Tuesday morning with three friends. The retired foundry moulder said: 'We left Exeter in Devon at 2am. We got up here at first light. It's near enough the furthest I've travelled [to see a rare species]. I'll wait until the light goes to see it and then we'll go back again. I'm retired. Three of us came up in one car. Speaking about his hobby, he said: 'I've been doing this since 1985. If I get this bird, it will be my 500th. There have been quite a few rare ones. It's been seen this morning, and it would be a new bird for me.'
Joe Eckersley, 28, travelled around 40 minutes from his home in Leeds to see the rare bird on Monday morning. He said he usually travels up to two hours to see birds after becoming interested in 'twitching' when he was 10 years old. So he was delighted when he discovered the extremely rare bird was a few miles down the road. Speaking yesterday, Joe said: 'I never thought I'd see a scarlet tanager in the UK, let alone in Yorkshire. It should be making its way down to Central or South America from the North East Coast of America or southern Canada at the moment. It's probably been here since October. I think the most likely thing that's happened is it will have been blown off course by a hurricane. When you're flying and you only weigh a couple of grams, it is easy to be blown off course by hurricane-force winds.'
Joe said the last sighting of a scarlet tanager was on Barra in the Outer Hebrides in 2014, but this is the first time the bird has been seen in mainland UK since a brief appearance in Cornwall in the 1980s. He said scores of people had made their way to the quiet road in West Yorkshire to try and catch a glimpse of the rare visitor. Joe went on: 'There were about 60 or 70 people waiting around. We waited around an hour before it showed, and it was probably there for six or seven minutes. We left because we weren't going to get a better view of it, but a friend who is there has sent me a picture and it looks like the number of people has doubled. There's at least 100 people there.' Website Bird Guides said the sighting was just the eighth in British history. Writing on X, they said: 'Never before seen in Yorkshire, the first-winter male Scarlet Tanager is just the eighth British record and the first since 2014.' Social media users erupted with excitement over the arrival of the unusual visitor.
One wrote: 'Well goodness me, after an autumn with few highlights since September, it was nice to claw back a lifer with the mental Scarlet Tanager in Shelf. Took a while but got it in the end! Great to see so many familiar faces.' Another said: 'I thought we were doomed to dip the Scarlet Tanager but after three hours it eventually popped up in its favoured garden in West Yorkshire.' A third said they had finally seen a bird they had 'dreamed about seeing for 50 years'. They wrote: 'A short trip up to Halifax today was rewarded with some distant views of this first winter male Scarlet Tanager - a mega North American vagrant with just seven previous records here. This is a bird I’ve dreamed about seeing in the UK for 50 years and a much wanted British Lifer!
The scarlet tanager is stocky, with a thick bill, large head and short, broad tail. It lives in more than 35 countries, including North and South America and spends spring and summer in the Northeast United States and parts of southern Canada. They usually migrate to northwestern South America for the winter. Tanagers prefer to live in mature forests high in the canopy and will stop in parks and gardens when migrating. Males are only red during the spring and summer, before molting into an olive-yellow colour in the autumn, while females and youngsters are olive-green with darker green wings and tails all year round. Pairs are monogamous during the breeding season, but will switch mates annually.
