Common Yellowthroat in Hordaland

Norway’s first Common Yellowthroat found in Hordaland. The elusive bird only gave brief views.

RARE BIRDS

Frode Falkenberg

11/1/20221 min read

Twitchers from the Bergen area were on site within an hour or so, but the bird proved to be extremely skulky. It had not been seen or heard after the initial observation. I was pretty lucky though, after an hour or so, The Star briefly showed well just in front of me. It was jumping from branch to branch on Rhododendron-bushes, just above the ground - and disappeared just as fast as it had popped up. Only two of us saw it, and the bird was not seen during the rest of the day. I managed to shoot a few photos, but all the settings on the camera were locked and fucked up - max speed and iso in really dark conditions. The picture above is extremely brightened and enhanced in Photoshop.

Just before 11 a.m. on Friday 28th. of October 2022 I received a call from fellow birder Eirik Nydal Adolfsen. He was whispering: - Frode, I've just found a new bird for Norway. A Common Yellowthroat! Eirik, a local rarity hunter with an impressive avian-rarity-finding-cv was calling from Sæle, about 60 kilometers northwest of Bergen. This was it!