Two-barred beauty

Well… how to come about this… This morning I was complaining on this blog about not finding anything. This morning I went for a short trip to Kunoy. There were several willow warblers in the village and all of a sudden I heard a weird redpoll-call followed by baby-trompet-call. And out of the blue sky came a stunning red male two-barred crossbil. It landed in a tree just 10 meters away from me flashing its white wingbars and tertial edges. I was stunned. I know it has been one of the largest ever influxes to Denmark, but Shetland didn’t get many this time. As the invasion seemed to loose its momentum I didn’t think I’d find any this year. And then this happens out of nowhere – when birding on the Faroes you really have to expect the unexpected.

The bird stayed in the tree for a few minutes giving me plenty of time to document it before it took of. It probably flew up to the plantation above the village. But I had promised to take our oldest daughter to sunday school, so I didn’t pursue it. But maybe I’ll do it tomorrow and maybe there are more?

This is the second time I find two-barred crosbills at Kunoy. The first time was 25th august 2002. This means that Kunoy and Mykines are the two best places for this species on the Faroes. This is by the way the 10th record for the Faroes.

This is a good comfort as our national football team  lost by one goal to Italy (we did hit the bar twice)…

SiO