Figures 260, 261 (above, below). Given the mere handful of Red-flanked Bluetail records for Alaska, field ornithologists working on Southeast Farallon Island could hardly have expected this first-fall male, captured there on 1 November 1989 (1989-172; David Beadle).

 

Figure 261.

 

 

 

 

 

RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL Tarsiger cyanurus (Pallas, 1773)

Accepted: 1 (100%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 0	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 0	Color images: see Figures

This diminutive thrush breeds from Finland and Estonia across much of central and southern Russia, as well as on the Kamchatka Peninsula, to northern China and Japan (Brazil 1991). The wintering grounds are in Southeast Asia. Records of vagrants are scattered across much of Europe and the Middle East, and the species is casual during spring and fall migrations in the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands.

California’s sole record of the Red-flanked Bluetail, and the only North American record outside of western Alaska, is of a first-fall male banded, measured, and photographed on 1 November 1989 at Southeast Farallon Island (Figures 260, 261). This species’ somewhat secretive nature may contribute to the paucity of records. Southeast Farallon Island’s sparse vegetation, coupled with the island’s intensive coverage (by both birders and banders) during migration periods, makes it one of the best locations in North America for detecting furtive rarities (see, for example, the Lanceolated, Connecticut, and Mourning Warbler accounts).