Setting hearts aflutter near Wareham in Dorset is a brightly coloured bird on a rare visit to the UK – and it looks likely to stay until it heads back to Africa later in the year.
A red-spotted bluethroat, an amber listed species which normally spends summers in Northern Europe and winters in Africa, is believed to have been blown into Dorset on an Iberian plume – warm air from the Sahara which brings thunderstorms with it.
Sitting pretty for Don Williams, a photo of the Continental visitor in Dorset foliage
Growing list of unusual species
The bird was briefly spotted near Swineham Point, Wareham, in late March before disappearing, but returned in early April 2026 spending time in plain view and enjoying the attention of bird lovers and photographers.
Part of the flycatcher family, the bluethroat is about the size of a robin but with a brilliant blue chest and a splash of red, along with a flash of chestnut on its tail, and is considered a very rare visitor to the UK.
But experts say that the behaviour of this particular bird suggests that it is set to stay for the season, to join a growing list of unusual species which are becoming more frequently sighted in Purbeck.
A warming climate has led to regular sightings of egret, ibis, waxwing and hoopoe around the Arne peninsular and Wareham Channel and there are hopes that over the next decade even more rare visitors will make an appearance.
The red-spotted bluethroat has made its home close to the River Frome near Wareham
The bluethroat happily posed for pictures when bird spotter Jacquie Webb made a special trip to find it
“It was not the slightest bit concerned!”
Jacquie Webb, who has a holiday lodge in Purbeck and is a frequent visitor to Swanage, said:
“I heard about the bluethroat through social media photographic groups that I belong to and it was so unusual that it was worth making the effort to go and try my luck at seeing.
“It was quite a long walk, over a mile to get to the location tucked away near Wareham, then we patiently waited at the spot for over an hour before it arrived on the path in front of us.
“It came so close you could almost have touched it, not the slightest bit concerned about having its photo taken so many times!
“It likes the hawthorn bushes full of berries and insects, ground feeds and likes water, which was all around its location, so for now I would think it will stick around until our winter arrives then most likely head off to warmer climes.
“The experience was right up there as one of the best I have had – we were just in the right place at the right time!”
“Why all the fuss?”, puzzles the bluethroat bird!
A distinctive hoopoe was seen at Harman’s Cross in April 2025
“People have put food out for it”
Dorset Bird Club secretary Jol Mitchell, of Ridge near Wareham, said:
“There are always records of rare birds like this bluethroat turning up, not necessarily due to climate change reasons but because you have an individual bird that may have been displaced by strong winds.
“This bird was seen in March and disappeared, but reappeared in early April and since then has become pretty popular.
“People have been putting food out for it – I wouldn’t like to say it’s not good, but obviously it is interfering with a wild bird. However, it does seem to very much like where it is and will quite likely stay for summer.
“There have been other rare birds around this area for the past three or four years, like the Bonaparte’s gull and the Forster’s tern, while bee eaters have bred on the Lulworth ranges.
“There have also been hoopoes in Purbeck, and waxwings which love rowan berries, although there weren’t any of those in Dorset in 2025 – they are an eruptive species, sometimes there are loads and sometimes there are very few.”
A little egret was once a rare sight in Dorset – now they are frequent visitors
“Now there are zillions”
Jol added:
“Climate change is an interesting thing, if the climate warms you would expect birds from southern Europe to spread into the UK – cattle egret, the great white egret and the little egret have expanded hugely over the last 30 years or so and they are now pretty common in Dorset.
“When I first started bird watching, back in the 1990s, a little egret was very rare and I remember driving to the South Coast to see one, but now there are zillions all over Poole Harbour, and the same is true of cattle egret.
“But on the flip side you also get species that don’t appear in the same numbers they used to, because of a phenomenon called short stopping.
“Waders in Scandinavia may well have migrated to the UK for the winter in order to get a better climate, but as the climate warms generally then the birds no longer need to move to the UK to experience a warmer winter.
“They stop where they are or don’t come as far south as the UK, and you see that reflected in numbers of some waterfowl like whooper swans and Bewick swans or some waders like dunlin.”
Mediterranean spoonbills now have nesting sites off RSPB Arne
Notable new breeding species
Over the last ten years or so, RSPB Arne which is located near to the bluethroat sighting, has seen some notable new breeding species, increased sightings of rare visitors and reintroductions, including white tailed eagles and osprey.
Other significant arrivals and rising populations around the Arne peninsula include glossy ibis, cattle egrets, Eurasian spoonbills and bearded reedlings.
Although RSPB Arne is famous for its dry and wet lowland heath, there is also ancient oak woodland, farmland, saltmarsh, reedbed, mudflats, scrub, wet woodland, grassland and even sandy beaches on the reserve.
This mix of habitats surrounded by Poole Harbour is one of the reasons the reserve is home to such a huge variety of species, with its open heathland being one of the best places to spot the rare Dartford Warbler.
Wareham’s red spotted bluethroat has become the latest in a long line of rare visitors to Purbeck
Adult ospreys 022 and CJ17 are Wareham’s most famous avian visitors
Further information
- More about spring birdlife on the RSPB website
- Watch the osprey nest on Birds of Poole Harbour website
