This afternoon while out with Trish at Cape Pembroke I briefly saw a small bird before it was disturbed by a dog. It flew a short distance into some long grass where it was hidden from view. I approached the area but it took flight again, this time flying quite a distance before dropping down onto some short grass.

We approached the area of short grass and after a few minutes I could see the bird feeding around the base of some tall grass. I was sure that it was not a female Black Throated finch but was not sure what it was. We watched the bird for a while and I got some quite good pictures, we then headed back into Stanley to alert other local birders of the find.

The only birder I could get hold of was Micky Reeves so we headed back out to the lighthouse where we quickly relocated the bird and had long, close range views. When we left I was certain that it was a juvenile species of Yellow Finch, but which one?

Having looked through lots of books and trawled the internet for a few hours I am pretty certain that it is a juvenile Grassland Yellow Finch Sicalis luteola. the other option being Patagonian Yellow Finch Sicalis lebruni

My thoughts have been backed up by an email I have received from Alvaro Jaramillo, author of “Birds of Chile”. I have emailed several birders in both Argentina and Chile to see what they think it is.

It has now been confirmed a juvenile Grassland Yellow Finch the first record for the Falkland Islands. Many thanks to Alvaro Jaramillo, James Lowen & Mark Pearman for the help in the identification.