RSPB confirms Lancing sighting of citrine wagtail

Sue Barnett spotted the citrine wagtail, a scarce visitor to the UK which is normally resident in north Asia, Russia and small parts of western Europe, at Widewater Lagoon in Lancing.

The snapper did not realise she had seen such a rare sight until she went home and looked through her pictures and said she was "chuffed".

She said: "I have just discovered that one of the photos I took at Widewater on Wednesday afternoon was of this very rare visitor to Sussex - a citrine wagtail. 

"What an honour for Lancing Widewater Lagoon that it chose to visit there. I am really chuffed to have seen it."

The RSPB confirmed the identification of the bird as a citrine wagtail.

A spokeswoman for the charity said: "Citrine wagtails are a rare sighting here but are becoming an increasing vagrant (a species that is currently outside their wintering and breeding area) to western Europe and are now breeding in Poland.

"Most sightings are recorded during autumn with some spring records occurring. We are not aware of any other sightings in the UK at the moment."

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This map shows the distribution of the citrine warbler. Light green means breeding, dark green means resident and blue means it is present there but does not breed (Image: Wikimedia Commons/IUCN)

According to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the species is a rare migrant with records of adults in mid-spring and mostly juveniles in early autumn.

Sue shared the image on Facebook and people shared their delight - and envy - at her sighting.

Nick Carpmael said: "A fantastic sighting. I'm quite envious."

Others thought they had seen the rare species elsewhere in Sussex.

Nicholas Belcher said: "I have seen them in Chailey. I am not a real birder, must just have been lucky."

Sheila Beadel said: "I've seen thousands of those roosting on buildings in Cairo - an amazing sight."

Chiara Vagnarelli said: "Well spotted and well done for capturing the photo."

Sue replied: "It was actually pure chance that I was talking to a couple and they asked me if I knew what the bird they could see was as they thought it was a yellow hammer."