Blue Rock Thrush
Monticola solitarius (Linnaeus, 1758)
Photo © Bryan Thomas
STATUS
Eurasia and Orient Region. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally during the period covered (BOU 1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). 1890 Yorkshire Scarborough, seen, September.
(P. Inchbald, Field 18th Oct., 1890: 599).
[BOU, 1971].
History P. Inchbald of Hornsea (1890) in The Field of 18th Oct., Vol. LXXVI. p. 599, says: 'While we were at Scarborough, before the arrival of the Redwing from Norway, a strange bird was noticed among our native thrushes picking off the berries of mountain ash, which has been planted on Oliver's Mount in some quantity, and was quite covered with its coral-like fruits. The bird was thrush-like in appearance, and closely resembled the Blue Thrush of Italy and the Riviera, with which I have been acquainted in the winter months. It was very tame, allowing even of a near approach. The colour of the plumage on the back was of the richest blue, quite as bright and glistening as that of the bird on the shores of the Mediterranean. It was seen for some minutes by my sister in the company of the common Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush, and flew away with them. It uttered no note by which to be identified, nor did we see it again, as our visit to the seaside was then at an end. As I do not see the Blue Thrush recorded in any of our British lists, even as an occasional visitor, it possibly may have escaped from some aviary.'
