Rare Bird Alert: November 25, 2017

The presence of a mid-week holiday didn’t seem to slow down the rare bird world this week, even despite the lack of first records. The new ABA Checklist includes an overhaul of ABA rarity codes, so you may see some new numbers this week. Bear with me as we all adjust to this new normal. Continuing birds include the Tamaulipas Crows (ABA Code 4) in south Texas and Thick-billed Vireo (4) in Florida. The Red-footed Booby persists in Northern California, but that species has been downgraded to a Code 2, so this will be the last mention of it in the introduction. Barnacle Goose (4) and Pink-footed Goose (4) retain their codes ( one too high in this birder’s opinion), but individuals continue throughout the northeast.

The impressive number of Fork-tailed Flycatchers (3) in the ABA Area this fall continues into late November, with a bird seen in Worcester, Maryland this week. There have been more than a dozen incidences of this species since July of this year, most east of the Mississippi River but with one outlier in California.