Abstract

This paper describes the appearance of two apparent ‘Pale Iceland Redpolls’ in Norfolk in 2009 and provides some contextual information on the appearance, taxonomy and British status of this still poorly understood taxon.IntroductionOn 14th March 2009, a ‘Greenland Redpoll’ Acanthis flammea rostrata was found (and subsequently trapped and ringed) in a garden at Kelling, Norfolk (Miller & Stoddart 2010). The bird remained with a small flock of redpolls comprising over 20 Lesser Redpolls A. cabaret and up to a dozen ‘Mealy Redpolls’ A. f. flammea. The flock remaineduntil at least 29th March and, thanks to the kindness of the garden’s owner, John Miller, I was able to watch the birds over a period of four days. On 23rd March, I noticed an intriguing pale redpoll in the flock (henceforth ‘bird 1’) and, the following day, a second bird (‘bird 2’) had joined the flock. It later emerged that bird 1 had been present since 8th February. Both birds remained until early April.Description and identificationBoth birds were large, clearly larger than the accompanying Mealy Redpolls and Eurasian Siskins Spinus spinus, closer in size to the Greenland Redpoll. They had long bodies, wings and tails and at times showedrather dense-looking, ‘padded’ plumage, which resulted in a bull-necked appearance with a deep chest and broad ‘shoulders’. On occasion, they indulged in ‘flank-billowing’, inflating their pale, dense, fluffy flank feathering and appearing rather puffed up and even paler. Structurally, therefore, the birds recalled Arctic Redpoll A. hornemanni but they also had medium to long bills with ‘bird 2’ at least having a slightly convex upper mandible. Bird 1 had been ringed during its stay but, unfortunately, it was not possible to read the number and therefore impossible to retrospectively recover any biometrics.