title: 2005 in birding and ornithology
text: # 2005 in birding and ornithology
  
  The year 2005 in birding and ornithology.
  
  ## Worldwide
  
  ### New species
  
  See Bird species new to science described in the 2000s.
  
  ### Rediscoveries
  
  In April, an announcement is made that the ivory-billed woodpecker has been rediscovered in North America; in July, doubt is cast on this claim. The debate remains unresolved.
  
  ### Extinctions
  
  The thick-billed ground-dove (Gallicolumba salamonis), last seen in 1927, is officially declared extinct.
  
  ### Taxonomic developments
  
  * The British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee announce that they have adopted the following species split:
     * Common scoter and black scoter
     * Velvet scoter and white-winged scoter
     * Greater Canada goose and Lesser Canada goose
     * Yellow-legged gull (split from herring gull)
  
  ### Ornithologists
  
  **Deaths**
  
  * 3 February - Ernst Mayr (born 1904)
  * 25 February - Tony Norris (born 1917)
  * 23 May – Derek Ratcliffe (born 1929)
  * 9 June - James F. Clements (born 1927)
  * 3 September - R. S. R. Fitter (born 1913)
  
  ### World listing
  
  * American Peter Kaestner becomes the fourth person ever to see over 8000 species of bird alive.
  
  ## Europe
  
  ### Britain
  
  **Breeding birds**
  
  * A pair of European bee-eaters makes a nesting attempt in Herefordshire - see Bee-eaters in Britain
  
  **Migrant and wintering birds**
  
  * The first part of the year sees a large influx of waxwings into southern England.
  
  **Rare birds**
  
  * Britain's third belted kingfisher was found on 1 April in Staffordshire, and was later seen briefly in east Yorkshire, then in Northeast Scotland; the last was in 1980.
  * Britain's second Barrow's goldeneye was found in May in Northeast Scotland.
  * Britain's second Audouin's gull was seen briefly at Spurn, east Yorkshire on 1 June.
  * An influx of trumpeter finches in Kent and Suffolk in the spring are the first of this species to be seen in Britain since the early 1990s.
  * A sooty tern visited the Anglesey tern colonies in North Wales in July - the first ever in Britain to be seen by large numbers of birders.
  * Britain's first Swinhoe's storm petrel on a pelagic, 17 km south of the Isles of Scilly on 21 July.
  * A yellow warbler on Unst, Shetland in September is Britain's fifth.
  * A Siberian rubythroat on Fair Isle, Shetland in October is also Britain's fifth.
  * Britain's first magnificent frigatebird is found moribund in Whitchurch, Shropshire following Hurricane Wilma, and dies in care at Chester Zoo
  * Britain's fifth green heron is found on Anglesey in November
  * Hurricane Wilma also brought an unprecedented influx of laughing gulls to Britain during November
  
  **Other Events**
  
  * The British Birdwatching Fair has Myanmar as its theme for the year.
  
  ### Ireland
  
  **Rare birds**
  
  * Ireland's first green heron is found in County Cork in October
  * Ireland's first Barrow's goldeneye is found at Quoile Pondage in County Down in November
  