Red-headed Bunting
Emberiza bruniceps Brandt, JF, 1841 (0, 2)
Photo © Tisha Mukherjee, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
STATUS
Central Asia, south-west and south-central Russia, south-west Mongolia, north-west China, north-east Iran and Pakistan, migratory wintering in India. Monotypic.
OVERVIEW
A number of earlier records were placed in Categories D and E due to it being a common import for the captive bird trade. The 2010 individual was originally accepted as a 2CY male Black-headed Bunting. However, after detective work by the Norwegian Rarities Committee it was found to be a 1CY male Red-headed Bunting and therefore the first acceptable record for Britain. It has now be superceded by the 1994 record from the Isles of Scilly.
BBRC RECORDS
1). 1994 Isles of Scilly Borough Farm, Tresco, 1CY, 21st to 23rd October; same, St Martin's, 24th to 25th October; same, Tolman, St Mary's, 26th October to 4th November.
(P. Robinson, Isles of Scilly Bird Bird Report 1994: 55; P. French and the Rarities Committee, British Birds 118: in prep.).
2). 2010 Shetland Out Skerries, 1CY, male, 2nd to 8th October.
(Birding World 23 (10): 438, photo; Birding World 24 (8): 351, plate 23; N. A. J. Hudson and the Rarities Committee, British Birds 104: 624, plate 338; BOURC (2025), Ibis 167: 312).
3). 2023 Yorkshire Flamborough Head, 1CY, male, 19th October to 29th November, photo.
(L. Bacon, P. French and the Rarities Committee, British Birds 117: 725, plate 489).
