First sighting of Yellow-throated Warbler in UK is sure to reignite longstanding British List controversy

Yellow-throated Warbler as depicted by John James Audubon in his Birds of America (1841)

SHOULD American warblers and other New World passerines be included on the British List?

The ongoing controversy has bubbled up anew following the appearance in the Port of Liverpool last week of a Yellow-throated Warbler that was seen hopping from cargo ship to cargo ship, one of them a recent arrival from New Orleans.

It is all but certain that the bird, which is mostly a partial short-distance migrant, had reached our shores on ship. But for the whole journey or just part of it?

And would the warblers claim to acceptance on the British list, potentially making it the 637th, be enhanced if it flies away the port estate and is relocated elsewhere on the mainland.

In due course, the various issues will be considered, behind closed doors, by a rarities panel of  the British Ornithologists' Union.

The strikingly beautiful warbler was reportedly spotted last Thursday (August 13)  by dock workers James Conlan and Ashley Hawkins, with the former able to secure some video footage.

The duo contacted local birders who were able to nail the identification.

While it remains on the port estate, assuming it is still alive, the bird will be out of view of birders.

But if it subsequently reappears beyond the port gates and somewhere in the great British wilds, it will be open house for a mega-twitch that is sure to attract hundreds.

While the world waits, this is what John James Audubon had to say about the species in his Birds of America published in 1841: 

"This beautiful bird absents itself from the state of Louisiana only for two months in the year, December and January. 

"When they return in the beginning of February, they throw themselves by thousands into all the cypress woods and cane-brakes, where they are heard singing from the first of March until late in autumn, sometimes in November.

"In their habits, they move up and down, sidewise and spirally, along the trunks, branches and even twigs of the tallest and largest cypresses or such other trees as are found intermingled with them. 

"They are extremely active. Like the Brown Creeper, they suddenly leave the uppermost branches or higher parts of the trunks, and, diving downwards, alight on the roots and renew their search for  small insects and larvae. 

"I never saw any of them pursue insects on wing."

He continues: "The male and the female are nearly alike in plumage, but the young birds, which hunt for insects in company in the manner of creepers or titmice, do not acquire the yellow on the throat, nor the full brilliancy of their plumage, until their first spring.

"These birds confine themselves to the southern States, seldom moving farther. towards the Middle Districts than North Carolina. 

"They do not even ascend the Mississippi farther than the Walnut Hills. 

"They are abundant in the neighbourhood of the Red River, and probably do not go farther south than Mexico, during their short absence from the United States."

                                      

           Port of Liverpool's most unexpected arrival - a Yellow-throated Warbler                                               (photo: Peel Ports)