Red-Headed Bunting - Emberiza bruniceps
While looking at the female White-throated Robin Irania gutturalis at Wassenaar on June 2nd 1995 our pagers told us a Red-Headed Bunting Emberiza bruniceps was present at a 'strekdam' (= pier) near the 'Slikken van de Heen' on the border of the counties Noord-Brabant and Zeeland, near Steenbergen
(Noord-Brabant). In the morning it was discovered by Peter Meininger, who had to count a colony of Mediterranean Gulls Larus melanocephalus first before spreading the news in the afternoon! We (a crowd of c 30 birders) had to walk 3 kilometres (2 miles) to reach the end of the pier (some did run the whole 3 kilometres to get there before dark!) where the Red-headed Bunting stayed till dark. Pictures and a videotape-recording were taken.
2 June 1995, Slikken van de Heen ZH; © Peter Meininger.
2 June 1995, Slikken van de Heen ZH; © Peter Meininger.
This species is not very popular amongst birders, because of the high escape risk.
All records in the Netherlands were reviewed in 1996/1997 and this review resulted in 11 records between 1933 and 1995, with one record in February, one in April, three in May, three in June, one in July and two in August. All were males. This record was the 11th for the Netherlands.
(cf Dutch Birding 18: 69-72, 1996).
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