Wild Black-throated Thrush at Whipsnade, 19/01/20

A very rare visitor to Britain, this bird was still drawing a crowd of birders up to a couple-of-dozen strong all day, five-and-a-half weeks after first arriving and despite the over-twenty-quid entrance fee required to get in. Fair play.

This bird is doing wonders for ZSL's income this year!

This might become a business strategy - release a "vagrant bird" and have twitchers flocking in to pay the entry fee.

It wouldn't work for mammal-watchers though. Hamerton releasing a wombat wouldn't fool anybody.

@Chlidonias

I can think of one or two people it might fool

Vagrant thrushes seem drawn to charitable endeavours. The last one I twitched was this one, just up the road from me: Christmas bonus thanks to rare bird

(which had a lovely discovery story as well, as an aside: Finders-in-the-field: Dusky Thrush, Beeley, Derbyshire, by @lilwag / Rarity finders: Dusky Thrush in Derbyshire - BirdGuides )

Black-throated thrush, baby Indian Rhino and new bull Elephant. What's not to like...