Today's great news is that the BOU has accepted the record of the chestnut bunting I saw last October on Papa Westray. They released a statement today:
Chestnut Bunting Emberiza rutila
First-calendar-year male, Papa Westray, Orkney, 19-29 October 2015 (photographed).
This species has had a difficult history on route to the British List, with all previous records being placed in Category E as the bird was a common import for the captive bird trade, and many escapes occurred. Following the EU bans on bird importation from the Far East in 2005 and 2007, the numbers found in Western Europe dropped. Being a first-year individual found in the Northern Isles in autumn, this individual had credentials to indicate that it arrived naturally. The species is a plausible vagrant from the Eastern Palearctic to Europe, being a long-distance migrant, and follows other accepted records in northern Europe. They breed in Siberia, northern Mongolia, and north-eastern China, wintering in southern China, southeast Asia, and northeast India. Therefore, it should be placed after the Yellow-breasted Bunting, Emberiza aureola, on the British List
Britain's first Chestnut Bunting
