Rare bird returns to Denmark after first sighting in 1980

DR reports that a dark-eyed junco has been spotted in Denmark for only the second time. The bird, last recorded in the country in 1980, has crossed the Atlantic and briefly settled in Rønnebæk, a village near Næstved.

The passerine normally lives in the United States and can be found as far north as the Arctic during summer.

“It could not be more special,” said Finn Jensen, a local board member of Dansk Ornitologisk Forening Storstrøm, a bird organisation.

“That such a small bird has somehow flown all the way here.”

Jensen has spotted the bird four times in less than a week, most recently while searching for it with DR Sjælland reporter Rikke Stokholm.

The sighting has drawn attention in Rønnebæk, which has nearly 600 residents. Visitors have travelled from Møn, Aalborg and Sweden, while Jensen also noticed a Dutch-registered car in the village.

Anette Baoder, who lives in Rønnebæk, said she had never experienced anything similar.

“There has been an influx of particularly older men with cameras, binoculars and all sorts of equipment,” she said.

“It has been very strange, because it is a peaceful little town. There has been much more traffic than we are used to.”