Rare visitors sighted at Farquhar

Broad-billed Roller (Annabelle Cupidon)

Western Yellow Wagtail (Annabelle Cupidon)

Two rarities have been sighted by Island Conservation Society staff at Farquhar within the space of two days. On 4 January, Annabelle Cupidon was cycling to the Farquhar airstrip to look for vagrant birds when she saw a flash of red feathers in a bwa blanc tree near the road. Then the bird flew towards Coco Edok marsh where she got a better view and was able to confirm identification as a Broad-billed Roller. The nominate race of Broad-billed Roller breeds at Madagascar migrating to East Africa.  Other races are resident sub-Saharan Africa. This is the fourth report from Farquhar since ICS established a Conservation Centre there.

Two days later on 6 January, while  conducting a beach patrol at Ile Déposées, Annabelle Cupidon and Matthew Morgan spotted another unusual visitor, a Western Yellow Wagtail. This is the first report of any vagrant species from this tiny island and the third for the atoll as  whole (all three since the establishment of the ICS Conservation Centre at Farquhar).