2005 in birding and ornithology
# 2005 in birding and ornithology

The year 2005 in birding and ornithology.

## Worldwide

### New species

See Bird species new to science described in the 2000s.

### Rediscoveries

In April, an announcement is made that the ivory-billed woodpecker has been rediscovered in North America; in July, doubt is cast on this claim. The debate remains unresolved.

### Extinctions

The thick-billed ground-dove (Gallicolumba salamonis), last seen in 1927, is officially declared extinct.

### Taxonomic developments

* The British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee announce that they have adopted the following species split:
   * Common scoter and black scoter
   * Velvet scoter and white-winged scoter
   * Greater Canada goose and Lesser Canada goose
   * Yellow-legged gull (split from herring gull)

### Ornithologists

**Deaths**

* 3 February - Ernst Mayr (born 1904)
* 25 February - Tony Norris (born 1917)
* 23 May – Derek Ratcliffe (born 1929)
* 9 June - James F. Clements (born 1927)
* 3 September - R. S. R. Fitter (born 1913)

### World listing

* American Peter Kaestner becomes the fourth person ever to see over 8000 species of bird alive.

## Europe

### Britain

**Breeding birds**

* A pair of European bee-eaters makes a nesting attempt in Herefordshire - see Bee-eaters in Britain

**Migrant and wintering birds**

* The first part of the year sees a large influx of waxwings into southern England.

**Rare birds**

* Britain's third belted kingfisher was found on 1 April in Staffordshire, and was later seen briefly in east Yorkshire, then in Northeast Scotland; the last was in 1980.
* Britain's second Barrow's goldeneye was found in May in Northeast Scotland.
* Britain's second Audouin's gull was seen briefly at Spurn, east Yorkshire on 1 June.
* An influx of trumpeter finches in Kent and Suffolk in the spring are the first of this species to be seen in Britain since the early 1990s.
* A sooty tern visited the Anglesey tern colonies in North Wales in July - the first ever in Britain to be seen by large numbers of birders.
* Britain's first Swinhoe's storm petrel on a pelagic, 17 km south of the Isles of Scilly on 21 July.
* A yellow warbler on Unst, Shetland in September is Britain's fifth.
* A Siberian rubythroat on Fair Isle, Shetland in October is also Britain's fifth.
* Britain's first magnificent frigatebird is found moribund in Whitchurch, Shropshire following Hurricane Wilma, and dies in care at Chester Zoo
* Britain's fifth green heron is found on Anglesey in November
* Hurricane Wilma also brought an unprecedented influx of laughing gulls to Britain during November

**Other Events**

* The British Birdwatching Fair has Myanmar as its theme for the year.

### Ireland

**Rare birds**

* Ireland's first green heron is found in County Cork in October
* Ireland's first Barrow's goldeneye is found at Quoile Pondage in County Down in November
