I visited Bhutan to see some of world’s most striking birds, but one I’d sought since childhood was my highlightI was about seven years old when, in the pages of the European field guide illustrated by the legendary bird artist Roger Tory Peterson, I first came across the Alpine accentor.Something about this bulky cousin of our familiar dunnock must have clicked, because soon afterwards I was convinced I had seen one in our suburban front garden. Not just unlikely but, as I later discovered, impossible. That’s because, as its name suggests, the Alpine accentor is a rare vagrant to Britain from the mountains of central and southern Europe. Continue reading...