Extremely Rare Black Flamingo Spotted At Limassol Salt Lake In Cyprus

VICTOR JOHNSON on April 8, 2015 at 6:00 pm 

An extremely rare black flamingo, which very few people have ever laid eyes on, has been spotted at Limassol Salt Lake on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, the British bases indicated in a statement. The statement indicated that experts believe the bird to suffer “from a highly rare condition known as ‘melanism,’ a genetic irregularity” which causes the rare bird to generate more melanin than normal, subsequently “turning them a dark brown, or black,” Cyprus Mail reported. 

Limassol Salt Lake, also known as Akrotiri Salt Lake, where the sighting took place lies southwest of the coastal city of Lemesos, also known as Limassol. The lake is considered to be amongst the most important wetlands in the eastern Mediterranean and it also marks the largest inland body of water on the island of Cyprus.

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‘Extremely rare’ bird spotted on the coast near Louth

By Sam Kinnaird 

Published on 09/04/2013 15:28

An ‘extremely rare’ bird with a boom described as being ‘like a foghorn’ has been spotted on one of the coastal nature reserves near Louth.

The bittern, a wading bird and member of the Heron family, features in a new report from the Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership (GLNP).

At one point in the 1990s there were just 11 ‘booming’ male bitterns in the UK giving it the EU’s priority species rating, though now there are believed to be around 75 breeding males.

Louth bird surveyor John Clarkson, who wrote a book entitled ‘Birds of Louth’ in 2007, said such sightings were ‘extremely rare’ in this part of Lincolnshire.

“They were perilously close to extinction at one point and are now heavily protected,” he said.

“But if you go to the right place and be very patient, you can see them , but they are very easily disturbed.

“They often give themselves away with their loud boom, which is their mating call. This can be heard usually in the early morning or towards dusk.”

Speaking to the Leader, John recalled in his book that there had only been one sighting of a bittern in the Louth area.

In 2004 a bittern was a brief winter visitor at a pond in the corner of a field near Julian Bower, off London Road, in Louth.

The bittern became all but extinct in Britain in 1886 after becoming a popular target for taxidermists, before slowly returning.

Read on:  http://www.louthleader.co.uk/news/environment/extremely-rare-bird-spotted-on-the-coast-near-louth-1-4979674

Rare birds found off far south coast

Posted Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:47pm AEDT

  

A nest of extremely rare sea birds has been discovered off the New South Wales far south coast.

The pair of Fluffy Goulds Petrel was found by the National Parks and Wildlife Service on Montague Island- near Narooma, earlier this month.

Shorebird Recovery Officer, Amy Harris, says it is the first time the birds have been found at the site.

"It's a great discovery!” she said.

“The Goulds Peterel is the first sea bird in New South Wales to have its status downgraded from endangered to threatened.

“It's a really significant discovery," Dr Harris said.

Dr Harris says it is now only the fourth known breeding ground for the bird.

"We have one pair on the island which have a chick at the moment,” she said.

“They like to nest in very rocky, steep locations and we suspect there's a few more nests in inaccessible parts of the Island that we're yet to get to."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-27/rare-birds-found-off-far-south-coast/4542934

Rare Asian rosefinch has twitchers in flap

A youngster that strayed on to the Copeland Islands after becoming hopelessly lost has birdwatchers in a tizzy.

When staff from the Copeland Bird Observatory caught a young common rosefinch on Saturday, it was only the third ever confirmed sighting in Northern Ireland — and the other two were also in the Copelands.

Common rosefinches hail from Mongolia and the Far East but have gradually spread westwards in recent years to eastern European countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic. However, they remain extremely rare in Ireland.

Duty officer David Galbraith said common rosefinches have previously been sighted on the islands in 1977 and 1985, but have not been recorded anywhere else in Northern Ireland.

“It was a normal day’s monitoring of migrating birds at the observatory. We had swallows and housemartins moving through in reasonable numbers, and some goldcrests,” he said.


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/rare-asian-rosefinch-has-twitchers-in-flap-16210112.html#ixzz26LoZB355

Bird details: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=8841