1996_in_birding_and_ornithology
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- 41 Northern bald ibises, a fifth of the known world population, die in Morocco of unknown causes.
New species
- The cryptic warbler (Cryptosylvicola randrianasoloi) from Madagascar is first described.
Taxonomic developments
To be completed
Ornithologists
Deaths
- 21 May - Bobby Tulloch (born 1929)
Britain
Breeding birds
- The only breeding pair of golden eagles in England hatch a chick for the first time in three years at Haweswater.
- 580 singing male corncrakes are counted, up from 537 in 1995.
- The first inland breeding of avocets in modern times takes place at a site in London. However breeding success at coastal colonies in East Anglia is poor.
- A pair of hoopoes successfully breed in Mid Wales.
Migrant and wintering birds
- Thousands of waxwings are seen across Britain in the first few months of the year.
- Large numbers of little stints and curlew sandpipers pass through during the autumn.
Rare birds
- A second-calendar year south polar skua (Stercorarius maccormicki) was at West Bexington, Dorset from 27 January to 4 February 1996. The species nests on the Antarctic continent, and during the non-breeding season covers large distances, including as far as the northern oceans. It was added to the British list in August 2021.[1]
- A redhead in Nottinghamshire in March is Britain's first
- An American coot at Stodmarsh, Kent in April is Britain's first
- An indigo bunting on Ramsey Island, Pembrokeshire in October is Britain's first
- A cedar waxwing in Nottingham in February is Britain's second, but the first to be seen by large numbers of observers
- A great knot on Teesside in October is Britain's second, but the first to be seen by large numbers of observers
- A Caspian plover in Shetland in June is Britain's fourth
- A calandra lark on the Isles of Scilly in April is Britain's fifth
- During October, the Isles of Scilly also hosted two black-and-white warblers and Britain's sixth buff-bellied pipit
- A Spanish sparrow arrives in Cumbria in July to begin a year-long stay; few observers had seen this species in Britain previously
- The influx of Arctic redpolls of the race exilipes which began in late 1995 continued, and became the largest recorded invasion of this species into the country
Other events
- Thousands of seabirds are killed by an oil spill when the Sea Empress oil tanker runs aground in Pembrokeshire in February.
- A trial cull of ruddy ducks takes place in the Midlands.
- At Rutland Water a project to reintroduce ospreys begins.
- The British Birdwatching Fair the Vietnamese pheasant as its theme.[2]
France
- Europe's first great blue heron on Ile d'Ouessant, Finistère in April.[3]
Ireland
- A long-toed stint at Ballycotton, County Cork in June is the first for Ireland.
Scandinavia
To be completed
To be completed
- Four Siberian white cranes arrive at Bharatpur in India, the first records of this highly endangered species there since the 1992/1993 winter.
- "Changes to the British List (13 August 2021)". British Ornithologists’ Union. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
- "Celebrating 30 years of Birdfair: 3 decades of global conservation impact". Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon. 31 July 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
- Fisher, E. Ashley (2010). "Great Blue Heron on Scilly: new to Britain". British Birds. 103: 206–212.