Earlier this week, the ABA Checklist Committee (CLC) unanimously (8–0) accepted the Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) as a natural vagrant based a record from St. Paul Island, Pribilofs, Alaska, on 8–9 October 2013 (Schuette and Gochfeld in prep.). The hatch-year bird was thought to represent the nominate subspecies. Common Redstart breeds from western Europe and northern Africa to central Russia; it winters in central Africa. The Common Redstart is species #987 on the ABA Checklist, an increase of six species since the CLC’s most recent published annual report (Pranty et al. 2013).
First ABA-area record of Common Redstart. Photo by Doug Gochfeld
Literature Cited
Pranty, B., J. L. Dunn, K. L. Garrett, D. D. Gibson, M. J. Iliff, M. W. Lockwood, R. Pittaway, and D. A. Sibley. 2013. 24th report of the ABA Checklist Committee, 2013. Birding 45(6):30–37, 75–79.
Schuette, S. and D. Gochfeld. In prep. First North American record of Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) from St. Paul Island, Alaska.