Birdwatchers flocked to a residential cu-de-sac after an ultra-rare species was spotted in Yorkshire for the first time.
The bird is believed to be a scarlet tanager, which arrived in Shelf, near Halifax, after being blown off course by strong winds from a hurricane in North America.
Normally, the bird makes two annual trips between lowland South American woods and the eastern United States.
But the rare scarlet tanager appears to have been blown off course to the quiet street Yorkshire, attracting dozens of birdwatchers from across the UK.
The bird’s song is often described as sounding like a “robin with a cold”, according to the American Bird Conservancy.
Females and juvenile birds have a yellowish-green body, while male breeding birds have a bright red body with black wings and tails, according to Cornell University’s All About Birds website.
Website Bird Guides said on X that the sighting was believed to be the first in Yorkshire.
“Never before seen in Yorkshire, the first-winter male scarlet tanager is just the eighth British record and the first since 2014,” it said.
The birds have thick, rounded bills for catching insects and eating fruit.
One birdwatcher, who made the journey from London, described the spotting as “exhilarating”.
Another one, Luke Nash, who made the trip from Durham, told the BBC: “I was a bit suspicious when I heard it was here. I was dawdling and playing with my camera, looking at my phone and then someone shouted it was coming in and then the camera came out of the bag and the binoculars were up.”
