Scilly Trip Report

I, like many others spent the early part of last week watching the birding news services with baited breath with mega after mega dropping into the Isles of Scilly: Solitary Sandpiper, Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Oriole, Red-eyed Vireo with a supporting cast of other scarce migrants such as Bee-eater, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Melodious Warbler and Woodchat Shrike etc...

I'd got some major EIA reports to finish so I couldn't drop everything to go straightaway so had to sit it out. By Thursday morning it appeared as though some of the birds had gone but there was still a fair bit of interest down there so I booked a flight and talked Dave into coming with me for the trek. Dave got to mine at 9pm on Thursday evening and we drove through the night, getting down to Lands End Airport for first light. We were both taken aback by how cold it was down there and were worried we'd not got enough cold-weather clothes! We needn't have worried though as the Scillies was like another country!

A poke around St Just didn't produce too much, a few Meadow Pipit, alba Wagtails and that was about it. A couple of Wheatear were noted on the airfield. While checking-in and going through the H&S information I glanced outside and saw a smallish wader flying over the airstrip, Buff-breasted Sandpiper! A good start to the day/trip and hopefully a sign of good things to come?!? The buff-breast circled about while we made our way to the tiny 8-seater plane and could be seen as we flew off to St Mary's.



On arrival at St Mary's airport (while waiting for my bag to arrive on the next plane!) we were treated to excellent views of the first summer Woodchat Shrike sat next to a Wheatear on a wire fence.

After dropping our bags off at the B&B we headed round to check out Higgo's Pool and the Dump clump to make sure we were in the right place for when/if the Waterthrush/Solitary Sand would show again, we then headed into Lower Moors to try and re-find the Black-and-White Warbler, which didn't result in much at all. After a fruitless couple of hours we made our way back to Higgo's Pool and staked it out for the afternoon. By this point the sun was raging down, it was baking hot and I was totally exhausted, so much so that I fell asleep standing up! After a 4 hours wait we were rewarded when the bird dropped in calling. It then showed well for the next 40 minutes as it fed along the edge of the pool, occasionally calling. A great bird!

The next couple of days saw a steady stream of good birds and saw us walking miles and miles. Saturdays highlights included the Solitary Sandpiper showing to about 12 feet, Ortolan Bunting showing to about 20 feet, Buff-breasted Sandpiper to 30 feet, 2Pectoral Sandpipers to 1 foot (they walked out from under the hide we were in!), Water Pipit, Whinchat, Stonechat, Wheatear and lots of other common birds.



Sunday was a difficult day, we walked miles and miles in search of the Bee-eater covering all the areas in which it had been favouring, but with no joy whatsoever! The only bird of note we had was a Lesser Yellowlegs that was sat on the beach next to our B&B! Hard work!

Monday was our last day on the island and the weather had closed in somewhat, we started out early and headed down to the dump clump, after an hour of watching the tree tops we were rewarded when we picked up a Red-eyed Vireo feeding in the Elms, it gave great views as it moved through. We didn't get much after that, save a showy Pectoral Sandpiper and a brief view of an Icterine Warbler both down at Lower Moors.

Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turned out) the fog prevented us from flying back to the mainland so we got on the Scillonian III, this resulted in a good afternoons birding with the highlights including 6 Balearic Shearwaters, 2 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Sooty Shearwater, 1 Sabines Gull, 2 Leach's Petrel, 35+ Storm Petrel, 4 Bonxie with Minke Whale, Common Dolphin and Sun Fish also seen. The sea was fairly calm which enabled me to get my scope up which certainly helped with the ID of the above!

Overall it was a great trip, it was a shame the Oriole and Black-and-White Warbler had gone, and also that the Bee-eater had flown off the day we arrived but that can't detract from the Waterthrush, Solitary Sand and Vireo that showed off nicely.

I didn't get many photos, and my blackberry zoom wasn't working for most of my trip which was a shame/pain, however I met a few birders who should hopefully be sending me some photos soon and I have a few better pics of the Pec Sands to put on.

Scilly Update

Just a quick one to say the lack of recent posts is due to my recent trip to the Scillies. I will put a 'trip report' up in the next couple of days but I've got quite a lot on at the minute with work so will try and catch up at the weekend.

Needless to say it will be packed full of decent rarities and hopefully a few decent pictures!

American Black Tern, Lincolnshire

After a busy day on Saturday of painting and shopping news of the American Black Tern in Lincolnshire went straight past me, maybe it was because I kept seeing Black and White Warbler, Northern Waterthrush and Solitary Sandpiper and I couldn't contemplate another mega out of my reach so it wasn't until late at night when I sat down with the laptop that I realised I may have missed a localish Mega! Unfortunately I'd got several plans and meetings scheduled during the day so had to wait my time and hope it would hang on.

Luckily the bird was still present on Sunday, and even better, it was still there when I could get across so as afternoon approached I met up with Dave and we shot across to Covenham Reservoir in Lincolnshire dodging a few hefty thunderstorms en-route.

On arrival we were straight onto the bird, we dodged another shower and moved along the dam wall for a closer look, the bird performed brilliantly and showed well for the duration of our stay. I didn't get any photos but there are loads on the Lincolnshire Bird Club Website such as this cracker by Robert Hardy



Also present were tonnes of Pied with a sprinkling of Yellow Wagtail lots of Great Crested and two Red-necked Grebes. Interestingly, the two grebes showed a great deal of yellow on the lower mandibles, could this be potential for the US holboellii sub-species? Check out Russel Hayes photo below, again with more photos on the Lincolnshire Bird Club website.

Local YL Gulls and a bit of other stuff...

I've not done masses of birding lately, mainly due to continued decorating, nasty weather, a flu/cold and lots and lots of report writing so I've mainly been making do with what I can find while out walking the dogs.

The number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the LDV has been steadily increasing over the past couple of weeks. I've seen a couple of flocks locally and have been focussing on a flock near home which last weekend peaked at around 300+ birds. This flock contained a decent scattering of Great Black-backed Gulls (the first real flock noted by me locally) and also included at least 2 Yellow-legged Gulls but unfortunately they got flushed by a farm vehicle before I could get my scope sorted. Also at the weekend, 2 Yellow-legged Gulls were seen in the north of the valley, with another bird in the east of the valley.

The numbers of gulls in the field appear variable with some days none been present but other days quite a few about. Yesterday there was only 35 Lesser Black-backs and 1 Yellow-legged Gull but today there was approximately 100 Lessers, with at least 4 Yellow-legs present.


© David Iliff 2007 Yellow-legged Gull (note this is not the actual bird(s) seen!

The House Martins in the nest on the neighbours house appear to be very close to fledging (hopefully they will make it this time!). There has been a decent passage of Swallows over the last few days locally with a fair few Yellow Wagtail and Meadow Pipit passing over too.

There has been a few passage Common Whitethroat and Chiffchaff noted on the local dog walk circuit and the number of Starlings are rocketing up too.

Of note on my dog walk this morning was a Water Vole that gave decent views. While in the office today I added an 'office tick' in the form of Snow Goose!

Some Great Birds in Finland

At this time of year I regularly check out whats going on around northern Europe in the hope that some of the awesome birds reported may make it over here. Last week Norway was my feature. Today it is Finland.

There has been reports of dozens of Pallid Harrier over there this autumn but it has been hotting up over the last few days, peaking with a cracking Isabelline Shrike and a first for Finland in the form of a migrating adult Sandhill Crane in amongst the Common Crane this evening. The photos below show the birds fairly well!


Isabelline Shrike presumed nominate isabellinus in Finland (September 2nd 2011 Nakkila, Leistilänjärvi, Finland © Mika Bruun)


Isabelline Shrike presumed nominate isabellinus in Finland (September 2nd 2011 Nakkila, Leistilänjärvi, Finland © Mika Bruun)


Adult Sandhill Crane (September 5th 2011 Espoo, Laajalahti, Finland © Joonatan Toivanen)


Adult Sandhill Crane (September 5th 2011 Espoo, Laajalahti, Finland © Joonatan Toivanen)

Is it April?

I wasn't sure if it was April this morning. I was greeted by both Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler singing in the garden which was cool! I took the dogs for a walk behind the house and came across a flock of at least 15 Yellow Wagtail feeding amongst the cows and horses feets. Nearby I had a brief Wheatear on the muck heap with at least 40 Meadow Pipit and 9 Skylark feeding amongst the freshly cut bean field. Several small flocks of Swallows were recorded, all heading strongly low north. All of the above, and what with the showers throughout the day it certainly felt like April!

Heslington East early am (Sat 3rd Sept)

Had an early am walk around the local wader hot spot that is Heslington East in the hope of connecting with the Little Stint that had been present for a few days. No such luck as there was no sign of the little one.

It was a surprisingly mild morning as the sun came up which was a pleasant surprise. The Little Stint had either gone, or was out of sight but 2 Greenshank, 1migrant juvenile Little Ringed Plover, 3 Common Sandpiper, 1 Green Sandpiper and 2 Snipe were recorded.

Highlights however came in the form of a Garganey and Kingfisher, the latter showed very well (not that my rushed picture shows this!), the former not so well unfortunately.


Kingfisher at Heslington East

Other waterbirds recorded included 2 Tufted Duck, 1 Pochard (when is the Ring-neck going to turn up?!?!), 2 Teal, 100+ Mallard, 1 Cormorant, 2 Great Crested Grebe, 20 Snow Goose, 65 Barnacle Goose and loads of Canada and Greylags.

Several passerines were also noted, including over 100 Swallow and 1 Sand Martin flying high south. Also heading south were 20 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Mistle Thrush, 30 Meadow Pipit, 1 Grey Wagtail and 150 Starling. There was also loads of Linnet, Goldfinch and Pied Wagtail feeding around the site.

Still hoping for a Yankee wader!

Lista Bird Observatory - Norway Birding!

I've been ill for a few days but back in the office today to get on with some report writing so no birding for me for the last few days so thought I'd tell you about one of my mates birding days - as it sounds pretty good!

Lista Bird observatory is approximately 600 Km Northeast of my favourite UK birding destination - Flamborough Head (where incidentally I now have my caravan set up!) separated by the North Sea. Knowing what is going on at Lista (and other such locations in Europe) can prove for a) some interesting reading, and b) some food for thought...

Some of the better birds at Flamborough come from the east so it is logical to assume some of the birds that get recorded over at Lista may make it over here given the right weather.

A couple of weeks back Lista recorded Norway's first Grey-necked Bunting, there shortly followed another bird in the same country a week or so later. Grey-necked Bunting has not yet been recorded in the UK (to my knowledge). There has also been a Pallid Harrier recorded over the last few days over there which seems to fit in well with records of birds in the UK and Ireland over the last week or so.

Today my mate Rich Cope (Richbirder) has had a fairly decent day with 2 Pallid Harrier, 1 Hen Harrier, 1 Black Kite, 1 Rough-legged Buzzard, 2 Honey Buzzard, 100 Sparrowhawk, 2 Barred Warbler and a Wryneck! A sign of what may be heading this way over the coming days??

Rich has also been having decent numbers of Two-barred Crossbills since 27th July, with 8 seen yesterday, hopefully some more will make it to the UK in the coming weeks and months.

Rich is providing daily accounts (internet/time permitting etc) which I really recommend.

The Life of Brian - An Amazing Discovery

A bird specimen that sat in a drawer at the Smithsonian for nearly 50 years has been revealed to be a totally new species to science, the first in the United States for 37 years.

The discovery of the true identity of the bird was thanks to a sharp-eyed scientist at the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP), who realized that the specimen had been misidentified after it was collected on Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 1963. Differences in measurements and physical appearance compared to other similar species were confirmed by DNA analysis, and the bird was given the name Bryan’s Shearwater, Puffinus bryani.



“I was doing research for a book I was working on, dealing with birds of Hawai'i when I came across this particular specimen of a seabird that was identified as a Little Shearwater. After examining the specimen, I knew that what I was looking at was not a Little Shearwater or anything else that occurred in the Pacific basin. Ultimately, I decided we needed to do the DNA testing, which determined that we had a completely new species,” said Peter Pyle, the IBP researcher who made the discovery.

Researchers rarely discover new species of birds, most of the world’s 9,000-plus species (including about 21 other species of shearwaters) having been described before 1900. The majority of new species described since the mid-1900s have been discovered in remote tropical rain- and cloud forests, primarily in South America and southeastern Asia.

The Bryan’s Shearwater is the first new species to be described from the United States and Hawaiian Islands since the Po’ouli was discovered in the forests of Maui in 1974. The Bryan’s Shearwater is the smallest shearwater known to exist. It is black and white with a black or blue-gray bill and blue legs. Biologists found the species in a burrow among a colony of petrels during the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program in 1963.

The Bryan’s Shearwater is closest in morphology to the Boyd’s Shearwater, which is found in the Atlantic Ocean, but is more genetically distinct than all its other shearwater cousins. Based on this DNA evidence, researchers estimate that the Bryan’s Shearwater separated from other species of shearwaters perhaps more than 2 million years ago. These findings have been published in a paper, A new species of Shearwater (Puffinus) recorded from Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, in the current issue of the scientific journal The Condor.

Researchers do not know where Bryan’s Shearwaters breed today. According to Pyle, shearwaters and other seabirds often visit nesting burrows on remote islands only at night, and researchers have not discovered the breeding locations of many populations. Individual seabirds from colonies also often “prospect” for new breeding locations, often far from existing colonies. Bryan’s Shearwater could conceivably breed anywhere in the Pacific Ocean basin or even farther afield.

“We don’t believe that Bryan’s Shearwaters breed regularly on Midway or other Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, based on the extensive seabird work in these islands by biologists with the Pacific Seabird Project,” Pyle said. The specimen was the only observation during this extensive project, which occurred on islands and atolls throughout the North Pacific from 1963 until 1968. “They would almost certainly have encountered more Bryan’s shearwaters then and since if they bred regularly in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.”

Given that Bryan’s shearwaters have remained undiscovered until now, they could be very rare. It is sadly even possible that they went extinct before ever being recognized, although there is at least one more record of a bird in a burrow on Midway from 1990, and observations at sea of what could be Bryan's Shearwaters as recently as 2005.

“If we can find where this species breeds, we may have a chance to protect it and keep it from going extinct,” said Andreanna Welch, who works for The Smithsonian and is the co-author of the paper on the new species. “Genetic analysis allows us to investigate whether an animal represents an entirely different species, and that knowledge is important for setting conservation priorities and preventing extinction.”

“American Bird Conservancy is not opposed to the judicious collection of specimens for scientific reasons, we oppose the collection of endangered species. If this bird had been found today, the data needed could have been obtained using digital imagery and DNA sampling on the live bird,” said ABC Vice President Mike Parr.

Bryan’s shearwater is named after Edwin Horace Bryan Jr., who was curator of collections at the B.P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu from 1919 until 1968.

(Press release from American Bird Conservancy)

Ringed-necked Duck Wheldrake - and other local birds

On Friday when I sat down to have dinner I got a message saying that there was an eclipse drake Ring-necked Duck briefly at Wheldrake Ings, but that it had unfortunately flown off north. Hopefully it will stay in the area and get re found in the coming days. We've had a lot of rain over the last few days so there is likely to be some local flooding which could prove interesting. There was also a Turnstone at Wheldrake too. Will have to keep my eyes open!


Eclipse male Ring-necked Duck (Photographed in Canaries in 2003).

I have been checking out a couple of fields and hedges to the south of the village over the last week in the hope of connecting with some migrants, eg Wood Warbler, Pied Flycatcher, Redstart or Whinchat etc. (or something better!), however as yet I've been unsuccessful in finding any of the above though I have had 3 Tree Pipit go south, along with a number of Swallow and a couple of Swift. A decent number of Meadow Pipit are starting to build up in one of the fields with a flock of Linnet and Goldfinch keeping them company. A bit of good hedge has held Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Common and Lesser Whitethroat and Chiffchaff with some of these considered to be migrants.

The gull numbers have been building up recently with birds flying over the house at dawn and dusk going to and from the River Humber. The majority of them appear to be Lesser Black-backed with the odd Common and Black-headed Gull thrown into the mix too. Yesterday while walking the dogs to the south of the village I was a little annoyed as someone ahead of me managed to flush a field full of gulls (c200+) before I could get there with my bins to take a look at them. Today however I fared much better and managed to get right up on them (even with the two dogs!). There was c.235 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 15 Common Gull and 2 Black-headed Gull but the highlight was two adult, and 1 juvenile Yellow-legged Gull that were in amongst all the Lesser Black-backs. I'll have to keep an eye open for them flying over the house as YLGull would be a pretty cool garden bird!

Speaking of Garden birds, on Friday morning I had a female/1st winter type Bullfinch in the garden. I heard the familiar call and then thought, I don't remember seeing/hearing Bullfinch previously from the garden, a quick check of my list reveled I was correct, it was indeed a new garden tick, number 82.

Posh man with stupid name falls over and blames Sea-Eagle

Saw this reported on BBC news today. The story is below, however I think it is more a case of posh man with a stupid name falling over and blaming it on the White-tailed Eagle.... maybe keep the geese in an enclosure or maintain the netting? Personally I'd rather look at a White-tailed Eagle than a hideous feral inbred goose!

A senior clergyman has been injured by a sea eagle as he tried to scare away the bird after it attacked and killed one of his prize-winning geese. The Very Rev Hunter Farquharson said he arrived home in Abernethy, near Perth, on Friday to see his Toulouse goose Beatrice lying dead on the ground.



A sea eagle - the UK's biggest bird of prey - was perched on a nearby post.

It jumped on Mr Farquharson's back as he tried to stop it attacking a second goose, leaving him with a head injury. With a wing span of 8ft (2.4m), the white-tailed sea eagle is the UK's largest bird of prey.

It was completely wiped out in Britain in the early 20th Century and only returned when a reintroduction programme began on the island of Rum in 1975. The project has been opposed by some farmers and crofters who say the birds frequently attack and kill livestock

Mr Farquharson, Provost of Perth Cathedral, said it was the second time his birds had been attacked by a sea eagle.

Three years ago, one of the eagle, known as "flying barn doors", killed four of his bantams.

RSPB Scotland blamed the attack on "very young and naive" birds which had been released this year.

The charity, which is responsible for the reintroduction programme in Scotland, said there were a "tiny number of incidents" like this, but said the birds would soon disperse as they grew in confidence.

An RSPB spokesman said: "In our experience sea eagles will only defend themselves and attack humans if they feel cornered and threatened.

"It is of course unfortunate that the bird scratched Mr Farquharson, but we believe it was simply trying to escape and resist capture."

The RSPB said it had visited Mr Farquharson in 2008 after the first attack and paid for the installation of netting to keep his birds safe, but that these protection measures had since been removed.

The licence for the current reintroduction programme was granted in 2007.

Quick Flamborough Trip

The weather looked like it had the potential to drop something good along the east coast last night/this morning so after my survey earlty this morning I headed over to Flamborough to see if there was anything about. I headed to the north side - my preferred area with the hope of finding something interesting. A loop of Holmes Gut, High Holme + Thornwick Bay Road produced:

Lesser Whitethroat (2) – 1 ringed
Common Whitethroat (11) – including several fledglings (a couple ringed)
Blackcap (1) – female
Corn Bunting (3)
Reed Bunting (4)
Sand Martin (4)
Yellowhammer (4)
Meadow Pipit (4)
Sedge Warbler (2) – pair?
Garden Warbler (1)
Sparrowhawk (1) – male

News filtered through of a Greenish Warbler and and Icterine Warbler on the south side so I thought I'd go and have a look for them. Unfortunately I didn't connect with either (not sure there was any sign of either after the initial sightings - or of the potential Ortolan that was mentioned) but I did manage:

Spotted Flycatcher (1)
Pied Flycatcher (1)
Willow Warbler (1)
Chiffchaff (2)
Common Whitethroat (2)
Sand Martin (1)
Whimbrel (1)

Generally at both locations lots of Swallow, Linnet, Goldfinch, the odd Greenfinch, Dunnock, Wren, Great Tit, Blue Tit etc… but lots of leaves made viewing tricky.

I bumped into Tim who found a Redstart along old fall but that cleared off before I could get a look.

Bird Fair - Saturday

Had a really enjoyable trip down to Rutland Water for the Bird Fair today. I didn't make it last year so thought I'd make the effort to go down and support this year. On arrival I met up with Tim at the Birdnet stand then met up with Lewis who had driven down from Edinburgh for the weekend. We went round together for the day catching up as we'd not seen each other for a while so that was good. We started our tour round the fair checking out all of the many varied stands. We had a chat with Tim Appleton which was great. I bumped into Tim in the middle of Bwindi Forest in Uganda back in 1997/98 and he allowed me to tag along birding with him for 2 or 3 days seeing some incredible birds in the mean time, something I've fondly remembered for the last 14/15 years!

It was really interesting meeting up with people that I've known for years, or worked with occasionally. Caught up with Neil Calbrade on the WeBS stand and learned a bit about passerine migration etc and caught up with Mick from the Nuneaton Bird Club - I used to go birding with Mick when I got back from Kenya most weekends so it was great to catch up with him too. Also entered a few competitions so looking forward to winning a few books and bottles of Whiskey!

I've been considering a couple of options for my next 'proper' birding tour, several options are in the pipeline, I really fancy a few West African 'destinations' such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Guinea to connect with some of the many special birds of the region. I also fancy Sri Lanka (possibly a trip Jenny and I could do - a mix of wildlife and relaxation), though top of my list is certainly India. There are several options with India, my preferred option is a 'Birding and IPL' tour, I met a guy today who would likely be able to set me up with one of these, a couple of weeks birding in India taking in a couple of my preferred IPL matches - can't think of a better holiday! There was also a good couple of wildlife tours suitable for us both to go on which would be great too. I've picked up plenty of brochures to look through over the coming weeks and look forward to getting some details of some upcoming expeditions into the jungle!

As we walked around I met up with a couple of my 'facebook friends' including Ruth and Alan of 'The Biggest Twitch' fame, and Peter Jones of Andalucia, Spain, all really nice people.

We bumped into a couple of 'famous faces', Lewis was over the moon to meet Simon King AGAIN making me take their picture together! We also had a good chat with Nick Baker, Killian Mullarney, saw Bill Oddie racing through with his head down!, some of the Dutch big guns and best of all (in my opinion) Jonathan Scott. I've got several of his books from when I was in Kenya, such as The Leopard's Tale etc and have watch numerous documentaries so it was great to be able to say hello and have a chat with him.

A flyover Hobby was a bonus as we were leaving. All in all a very enjoyable (although a bit tiring) day.

More Garden Quail: An Update.

The brief burst of Quail song heard from the garden on Sunday was unusual, it was a first for my garden list and it was bang in the middle of the afternoon, not entirely 'prime-time' Quail singing time, however on Monday evening the bird sang for a good hour or so at the more typical time, dusk.

This singing bird got me a bit interested - Quail always do generally, since I spent hours chasing them through the undergrowth in Kenya when I was younger. This year has been a bumper year for Quail, at least regionally with masses of them all across Yorkshire and I've had good numbers on one of my work sites (c 20 singing males) and had a good few locally too.

The cause of Quail influxes are poorly understood (it will be interesting to see how this years influx shapes up to previous years) but several have been associated with warm dry springs, a prevalence of southeasterly winds and drought in southern Europe. Recent research in France and Spain suggests that influxes may be associated with good breeding seasons in North Africa and Iberia.


© LDV Birder 2008

Quail are able to reproduce when they are 12-13 weeks old and the offspring of early breeders migrate northwards to breed in Iberia, France and Northern Europe eg England.

The English breeding population may have two components; long distance migrants which winter in the Sahel and fly directly to breeding grounds in England and others which breed in irrigated farmland in north Africa and Iberia before moving northwards to renew breeding activity alongside their own offspring in England. Whilst some late-nesting birds present in England in August and September may be birds tending replacement or second clutches, many may be such southern-nesting birds.

Was the bird heard singing from the garden one of these late breeders, or just a bird heading south on migration dropped by one of the recent showers taking a break to feed up before heading south? Who knows…

Gay Little Sparrows!

Not quite sparrows but Zebra Finches. Saw this today on BBC Nature website... appears as though gulls, penguins, albatrosses are at it too! They're all at it!

Same-sex pairs of monogamous birds are just as attached and faithful to each other as those paired with a member of the opposite sex.



The insight comes from a study of zebra finches - highly vocal, colourful birds that sing to their mates, a performance thought to strengthen the pair's bond.

Scientists found that same-sex pairs of finches sang to and preened each other just like heterosexual pairs.

The study is reported in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology.

Lead researcher Julie Elie from the University of California Berkeley said that the research showed that "relationships in animals can be more complicated than just a male and a female who meet and reproduce, even in birds".

Dr Elie and her colleagues are interested in zebra finches' behaviour. The birds establish life-long relationships and are highly social; males sing to their mates, the birds preen each other and pairs share a nest.

"I'm interested in how animals establish relationships and how [they] use acoustic communication in their social interactions. My observations of [them] led me to this surprising result: same-sex individuals would also interact in affiliative manners, like male-female pairs."

Dr Elie decided to look more closely at the formation of these bonds and the behaviour of finches in same-sex pairs.

First, she and her colleagues, Clementine Vignal and Nicolas Mathevon from the University of Saint-Etienne, raised young finches in same-sex groups. More than half of the birds paired up with another bird of the same sex.

The team then closely monitored the birds for signs that they had bonded fully.

Bonded birds, Dr Elie explained, perch side by side, nestled together. They also greet each other by "nuzzling" beaks.

In the next stage of their study, the scientists brought novel females to a group of bonded male-male pairs. Out of eight males that were engaged in same-sex pair-bonds, five ignored the females completely and continued to interact with their male partner.

The findings indicate that, even in birds, the drive to find a mate is far more complicated than simply the need to reproduce.

"A pair-bond in socially monogamous species represents a cooperative partnership that may give advantages for survival," said Dr Elie. "Finding a social partner, whatever its sex, could be a priority."

There are many other examples of same-sex pairing in the avian world.

In monogamous gulls and albatrosses, it gives females the chance to breed without a male partner.

"Female partners copulate with a paired male then rear the young together," Dr Elie explained.

In captivity, there have been at least two cases of male penguins forming long-term bonds when there are females available.



Perhaps the most famous of these was two male chinstrap penguins in Manhattan's Central Park Zoo, named Roy and Silo. They bonded and paid no attention to females in their enclosure for at least a year.

They even built a nest together and incubated and hatched a fertilised egg donated to them by one of the keepers.