Abstract

A male House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus at Land’s End, Cornwall, in early May 2010, was subsequently seen at the Lizard (also Cornwall) and then East Prawle, Devon. The assessment of the record by BOURC covered a range of issues, including identification and taxonomy, migration and vagrancy, the status of the introduced population in eastern North America, and captive status in Europe. The balance of probability of the available evidence did not favour natural occurrence in a wild state and the record was placed in Category E.