Changes to the British List (10 August 17)
10 August 2017
The British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC) has accepted the following to the British List
Pale-legged Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus tenellipes
Male, first-calendar-year, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, 21 October 2016 (specimen).
Pale-legged Leaf Warbler © Laurence Pitcher
An individual, probably this species, was observed in Dorset in October 2012. However, being only a sight observation, it could not be separated from the very closely related Sakhalin Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus borealoides, with the record thus being accepted by BOURC as the species pair. This new record, being a freshly dead specimen, allowed analysis of DNA to confirm its specific identity and addition to the British List.
Breeds from east Russia to north-east China and North Korea; wintering in south-east Asia.
It should be placed after Two-barred Greenish Warbler Phylloscopus plumbeitarsus on the British List.
Further details of this decision will be published as part of the BOURC’s 48th report expected to be published in Ibis in January 2018. Upon publication of these decisions, the British List stands at 607 species (Category A = 589; Category B = 8; Category C = 10).