Gould recalled 'A fine specimen of this eastern bird was captured near Brighton in the latter part of the year 1869, prior to which the furthest westward that the species was known is in the environs of Liège,...it is, in fact, another of the many continental birds that have of late years wandered into the British Islands...'.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds Kazakhstan to western Mongolia. Winters south and west Iran and northern Black Sea. In Britain rare vagrant and only two records 1869 and 1981, now accepted