Excited birders were surprised by what turned out to be only the Third State Record of a Crested Caracara flying along the coast at Fort Morgan in Alabama.

Canadian birders led the week’s rare bird sightings with three provincial records from British Columbia alone, including the Second Provincial Record of a Common Crane, sighted in a large flock of Sandhill Cranes feeding in the Peace River area of British Columbia. Birders also found a Second Provincial Record Red-shouldered Hawk in Metchosinm, BC, along with a 12th Provincial Record Green-tailed Towhee in Lumby. (BC was the place to be!) But not to be bested, Edmonton birders enjoyed a First Provincial Record Ash-throated Flycatcher for Alberta. And yes, there were plenty of American rare bird sightings last week too!

STATE & PROVINCIAL RECORDS

First Provincial Record Ash-throated Flycatcher – Edmonton, Alberta

Second Provincial Record Common Crane – Peace River area, British Columbia

Second Provincial Record Red-shouldered Hawk – Metchosinm, British Columbia

Second State Record Virginia’s Warbler – Union County, Tennessee

Third State Record Crested Caracara – Fort Morgan, Alabama

Third Provincial Record Black-throated Sparrow – Courtice, Ontartio

Sixth State Record Reddish Egret – Moab, Utah

Twelfth Provincial Record Green-tailed Towhee – Lumby, British Columbia

REALLY RARE FAR-WEST ALASKA SIGHTINGS

White-tailed Eagle – Nome, Alaska

Rustic Buntings – St. Paul Island, Pribilofs, Alaska

Eyebrowed Thrush – St. Paul Island, Pribilofs, Alaska

Gray Wagtail – St. Paul Island, Pribilofs, Alaska

Garganey – St. Paul Island, Pribilofs, Alaska

REALLY RARE SIGHTINGS

Fork-tailed Flycatcher – Willacy County, Texas

Black-throated Sparrow – near Duluth, Minnesota

Kirtland’s Warbler – Northampton County, Virginia

Black-throated Blue Warbler – Fargo, North Dakota

Lark Bunting – Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts

Rock Wren – Minneapolis, Minnesota

Brown Booby – near Fort Smith, Arkansas

Nazca Booby – offshore of Monterey, California

Harris’s Hawk – Fairgarden, Tennessee

CONTINUING RARE BIRDS

Believe it or not, no continuing rare birds were reported this week, so clearly even the rarest birds are on the move, which bodes well for finding more off-course rare birds this week – keep your eyes peeled and your ears sharpened for your next rare bird – and share it with the ABA, eBird, and us!

For more information, see the American Birding Association’s Rare Bird Alert at http://blog.aba.org/2019/10/rare-bird-alert-october-11-2019.html Special Thanks to the ABA, and Nate Swick, who does such a great job of compiling the ABA’s Rare Bird Alert, which we use to prepare this weekly replay.

You can often find more information about individual rare bird sightings from the state rare bird alert listserves that you can access at http://birding.aba.org/ or at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ABArare/