Red-flanked Bluetail in NJ!

     On Tuesday, my first night back at home after several days down in much warmer Florida, I started getting reports that a Red-flanked bluetail had been seen in Whiting, Ocean County, NJ.  My first impression was, no way.  Red-flanked bluetails are an Asian species, with rare occurrences in the United States.  The only one that I remembered was in Los Angeles in 2019.  I just happened to be in that area with my family then and actually made an unsuccessful attempt to see the bird.  It had been frequenting the grounds at the Clark Library of UCLA.  Since then, though, there have been a few more vagrants to the U. S., but none east of Wyoming.

So, my next thought was that someone misidentified the bird.  This happens with some new or casual (or careless) birders, especially when there are no photos to backup such an unusual sighting.  Then photos soon followed, and unbelievably, it was a red-flanked bluetail!  This would be the first one recorded in the eastern half of the country, an ultra rarity, and it was in my home county.  This was Tuesday night, so no one could go look for the wayward bird until at least day break.  The bird was seen on private property and no one had any idea how receptive the homeowner or the neighbors would be to the potential large number of birders and photographers that would be showing up to see it.  I knew many would set out early, but I was going to wait for positive reports before I would venture out.

Luckily my friend Larry lives only about five minutes from that location and at around 9:30 Wednesday morning he texted me that he got the bird.  He told me where to look for it and I was out the door on my way.  I got to the location around 10:00 and there were several dozen others there looking too.  For two hours it was a waiting game with very little to no bird activity in the area.  Then finally, at about noon, the headliner bird made an appearance.  It moved quickly, bouncing and flying between a few low hanging tree branches and the ground before disappearing again, all within about a minute.  I had to leave shortly after that.  I did get to see it and I did blindly fire off some camera shots.  I did catch a couple images of the bird, not great by any means, but identifiable.

Today, I went back hoping to get better looks at the growingly popular bird and maybe even get better photos.  Today was colder than yesterday and the little feathered creature made us wait again.  It took another two hours after I arrived before it made a very brief appearance.  But in that few seconds I got probably my best photo of it, not great, but better than the blurry shots from yesterday.  I hung around the area for another two hours hoping for a National Geographic money shot, but that didn’t happen.  I did get to see the bird a few more times.  It is a small bird and would not sit still when in the open, so I’ll have to live with the photos I have.  I did help a few people get eyes on the bird, and their gratefulness was meaningful.

Red-flanked bluetail.  © S. Weiss

The bluetail belongs to the family of Old World Flycatchers.  It is a small bird, about the size of a Carolina wren.  Its breeding range is from Scandinavia to Russia, China and North Korea.  Its non-breeding range usually takes it south down to Japan.  It only recently has made appearances to the western United States, mostly in California, Washington and western Alaska.  Until now, it had never been recorded east of Laramie, Wyoming.

The impact on the birding world of this bird’s presence here was apparent not only by the amount of people standing in the cold waiting to get at least a glimpse of the transcontinental visitor, but also by the variety of license plates on the vehicles lined along the road outside of this 55-and-older community.  I saw vehicles from New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia.  Other birders came from Massachusetts, Washington D. C., West Virginia and Michigan.

Pending acceptance by the New Jersey Birds Record Committee, this will be the 498th species recorded in the state.