Puneet Varma (Editor)

1996 in birding and ornithology

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Worldwide

  • 41 Northern bald ibises, a fifth of the known world population, die in Morocco of unknown causes.

    • New species

    See also Bird species new to science described in the 1990s
  • The cryptic warbler (Cryptosylvicola randrianasoloi) from Madagascar is first described.

    • Taxonomic developments

    To be completed

    Contents

    Deaths

  • 21 May - Bobby Tulloch (born 1929)

    • Breeding birds

  • The only breeding pair of golden eagles in England hatch a chick for the first time in three years at Haweswater.
  • 580 singing male corncrakes are counted, up from 537 in 1995.
  • The first inland breeding of avocets in modern times takes place at a site in London. However breeding success at coastal colonies in East Anglia is poor.
  • A pair of hoopoes successfully breed in Mid Wales.

    • Migrant and wintering birds

  • Thousands of waxwings are seen across Britain in the first few months of the year.
  • Large numbers of little stints and curlew sandpipers pass through during the autumn.

    • Rare birds

  • A redhead in Nottinghamshire in March is Britain's first
  • An American coot at Stodmarsh, Kent in April is Britain's first
  • An indigo bunting on Ramsey Island, Pembrokeshire in October is Britain's first
  • A cedar waxwing in Nottingham in February is Britain's second, but the first to be seen by large numbers of observers
  • A great knot on Teesside in October is Britain's second, but the first to be seen by large numbers of observers
  • A Caspian plover on Shetland in June is Britain's fourth
  • A calandra lark on the Isles of Scilly in April is Britain's fifth
  • During October, the Isles of Scilly also hosted two black-and-white warblers and Britain's sixth buff-bellied pipit
  • A Spanish sparrow arrives in Cumbria in July to begin a year-long stay; few observers had seen this species in Britain previously
  • The influx of Arctic redpolls of the race exilipes which began in late 1995 continued, and became the largest recorded invasion of this species into the country

    • Other events

  • Thousands of seabirds are killed by an oil spill when the Sea Empress oil tanker runs aground in Pembrokeshire in February.
  • A trial cull of ruddy ducks takes place in the Midlands.
  • At Rutland Water a project to reintroduce ospreys begins.
  • The British Birdwatching Fair has the Vietnamese rainforest as its theme for the year with the Vietnamese pheasant as its flagship species.

    • France

  • Europe's first great blue heron on Ile d'Ouessant, Finistere in April.

    • Ireland

  • A long-toed stint at Ballycotton, County Cork in June is the first for Ireland.

    • Scandinavia

    To be completed

    North America

    To be completed

    Asia

  • Four Siberian white cranes arrive at Bharatpur in India, the first records of this highly endangered species there since the 1992/1993 winter.

    • References

    1996 in birding and ornithology Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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