Scarlet tanager: Crowds flock to Halifax to spot rare bird

Website Bird Guides said on X, external 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.

According to Cornell University’s All about Birds website, the male breeding birds have a bright red body and black wings and tails, while females and juvenile birds have a yellowish-green body.

It is usually the duller yellowish birds which are spotted in the UK, having been swept off course by storms as they migrate south in the autumn, the website said.

One man among the throng had travelled a little less far than other enthusiasts – he had journeyed from a few hundred metres away in the village.

The temporary twitcher had been walking his dog when he spotted the crowds and decided to join them, declaring that he would be “chuffed to bits” to see the American visitor.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here, external.