A tiny bird that flew 3,000 miles from Siberia, Mongolia or northeast China has been spotted in a garden on the Ards Peninsula.
Ulster Wildlife say their nature reserves officer Ronald Surgenor waited patiently for five hours to catch the Pallas’s leaf warbler on camera.
Named after German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas, who first formally described it, the little bird is a “very rare visitor” as the species has only been seen in Northern Ireland twice before.
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Mr Surgenor, who has been working for Ulster Wildlife for five years, said: “Last Saturday a couple of avid birders alerted me to this Pallas’s leaf warbler, which was spotted in a garden at the southern end of the Ards Peninsula – over 3,000 miles from their breeding grounds in Asia.
“I immediately made my way there to try and capture some photos.
“This species is similar in size to a goldcrest, weighing just 7g – less than a pound coin.
“It breeds in mountain forests ranging from southern Siberia to northern Mongolia and northeast China - a very rare visitor to our shores.
“This is the third ever record of one in Northern Ireland,” added the Holywood man.
“I spent five hours trying to capture a few photos - worth it for such a rare sight! The bird hasn’t been spotted again since Sunday, but given how small it is it could be bunkering down somewhere nearby.
“There has been a bit of an influx of these birds recently – over the last 10 days or so, three or four have been spotted across Ireland.
“This will likely be because of low pressure weather systems which knocked them off course when they were flying south for the winter, and they ended up travelling all the way across Europe to Ireland.”
Pallas’s leaf warblers are just 9cm long with a wingspan of 14cm.
With just 61 sightings of the bird across the UK each, the British Trust for Ornithology describes the experience as “magical”.
It’s first recorded sighting was in Norfolk in 1869 and the species is considered of least concern in relation to conservation.
See Ulster Wildlife website for more information about they do.
You can also follow Ronald’s wildlife photography at facebook.com/CausewayPhotography
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