On Friday 31 October 2025 Hans and Elza van Driel were birding on Terschelling Fr. At c 14:49 hours birding at the Liesingerplak, a pond near Lies they found and photographed a stonechat Saxicola species and uploaded the record with several photographs on waarneming.nl. On Sunday 2 November 2025 Minne Feenstra noted the record and identified the bird as a Siberian S. maurus or Amur Stonechat S. stejnegeri and asked for more information. He looked for the bird the next day, but could not find it. On Wednesday 5 November 2025, however, he visited the area again and now he found the bird present again. That day a few birders from the island were able to take more pictures and also collected droppings for DNA-analysis.
The warm tones on the upperparts and the orange rusty rump made birders think it had better papers for Amur Stonechat Saxicola stejnegeri, the fifth record for the Netherlands. Not many birders responded quickly, as many birders had seen the Texel bird of 2012 or the Vlieland bird from 2017. Around 12 birders went for a look the next day on 6 November 2025 and could observe the bird all day at the northern side of the pond, though never at close range.
There is a good identification article published in British Birds by Magnus Hellström and Mats Waern in 2023. Amongs other things, they stated that warm-coloured birds with orange rumps containing black stripes should be enough for the identification and that even warm-coloured birds without the black stripes are most certainly Amur Stonechats.
Note the orange-cinnamon rump with a black stripe on at least two of the longest coverts.
First-calendar year male; 6 November 2025, Liesingerplak, Lies, Terschelling Fr; © Daniel Boer.
The bird was seen until 7 November 2025 and, if accepted, it will be fifth record for the Netherlands.
Previous records were between 8 and 23 October at the Cocksdorp, Texel NH; 9 October 2016, Kroons Polders, Vlieland Fr (trapped); 16-17 October 2017, Oostpunt, Vlieland Fr; 18 October 2021, Schiermonnikoog Fr. Source: Dutch Avifauna.
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