The 2024 report from the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP), which was published this month, lists the species as the fourth new species to breed in the UK in the past decade.

 

The Blyth’s reed warbler has previously been recorded raising its young at a site in Highland in 2024. Meanwhile, singing males have been reported in the UK since 2000.

 

The species would typically breed in Scandinavia and Russia. However, its breeding range has been shifting to the west across Sweden and Norway in recent decades.

 

While the arrival of the Blyth’s reed warbler as a breeding bird had been predicted, this is the first time that a breeding pair has been recorded.

 

It is the fourth confirmed breeding species reported by the RBBP in the past ten years. It follows the Iberian chiffchaff (2015), night-heron (2017) and the glossy ibis (2022).

 

The latest RBBP report also features the red-breasted flycatcher for the first time.

 

Two male red-breasted flycatchers were reported holding territories in 2024, in the woodland of north-east Scotland and Upper Forth. Unfortunately, neither were successful in attracting a mate.

 

The report includes further insight into the impact of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1.

 

For two years, the disease affected rare breeding species including the roseate tern, Mediterranean gull and the white-tailed eagle. However, with very few cases reported in 2024, near-record levels of activity in a roseate tern colony in Northumberland has suggested recovery is underway.

 

Dawn Balmer, BTO Head of Surveys and RBBP Chair said "Thanks to everyone who makes their records available to the Rare Breeding Birds Panel. The majority of records come from birders who submit their records, with breeding evidence, to the network of county bird recorders, who then do a fantastic job of compiling the records to send onto RBBP.

 

“The Panel really appreciates all records received, which enables our rare breeding birds to be monitored."

 

Andrew Stanbury, RSPB representative, added: “Here is some really fantastic news about some of our rarest birds doing really well, many supported by some great conservation and heroic work, but the scale and pace of change is alarming.

 

“While we have shown how we can bring back and protect some of our rarest birds, we are at the same time losing the common and widespread birds around us at an accelerating rate."

 

More information about the 2024 report can be accessed here.