A colorful male Western Tanager was a cross-country visitor to a neighborhood in Monroe Township near Spotswood, New Jersey.

It was a rare week when no State or Provincial Record Birds were found continent-wide, but there were plenty of exciting birds with two more species crossing the Texas border – a Blue Bunting in San Antonio and a Yellow-faced Grassquit – Brownsville. Others were mostly western species ending up in eastern states – and most are colorful songbirds found at feeders: Painted Bunting, Western Tanager, and Bullock’s Oriole. Also, 2021 has been exceptional for the numbers of Continuing Rare Birds that remain weeks after they were originally found.

REALLY RARE SIGHTINGS

Blue Bunting – San Antonio, Texas

Yellow-faced Grassquit – Brownsville, Texas

Bullock’s Oriole – Marion, Massachusetts

Western Tanager – near Spotswood, New Jersey

Painted Bunting – Pearl River, New York

Black-headed Grosbeak – near Killbuck, Ohio

Ferruginous Hawk – Hinton, Missouri

CONTINUING RARE BIRDS

Crimson-collared Grosbeaks – Texas

Blue Bunting – Texas

Golden-crowned Warbler – Texas

Redwings – Nova Scotia

Redwing – Maine

Redwing – Labrador

Streak-backed Oriole – California

Garganey – California

Northern Jacana – Arizona

Cuban Pewee – Florida

Black-faced Grassquit – Florida

For more information, refer to the American Birding Association’s Rare Bird Alert at https://www.aba.org/rare-bird-alert-february-26-2021/ 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/