2005 in birding and ornithology

See Bird species new to science described in the 2000s.

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.

The thick-billed ground-dove (Gallicolumba salamonis), last seen in 1927, is officially declared extinct.[1]

• 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)

• 3 February - Ernst Mayr (born 1904)[2]
• 25 February - Tony Norris (born 1917)[3]
• 23 May – Derek Ratcliffe (born 1929)[4]
• 9 June - James F. Clements (born 1927)
• 3 September - R. S. R. Fitter (born 1913)

• American Peter Kaestner becomes the fourth person ever to see over 8000 species of bird alive.

• A pair of European bee-eaters makes a nesting attempt in Herefordshire - see Bee-eaters in Britain

• The first part of the year sees a large influx of waxwings into southern England.

• 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.[5]
• 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

• The British Birdwatching Fair has Burma as its theme for the year.

• 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