I got a call from Nic Huin this afternoon telling me he had just found a Rufous Collared Sparrow Zonotrichia capensis at Cape Pembroke lighthouse. I went down there and saw the bird actively feeding on seeds in amongst the sandgrass by the lighthouse. With the light fading fast I only managed the below record shot.

Rufous Collared Sparrows are vagrants to the Falkland Islands with most records coming from the Islands in the far North West of the archipelago. Most records are of the race australis which is widespread across Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. But I suspect that this bird could be of the race chilensis which is found further North. |
• Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - Untitled Comment