Red-headed Bunting is a very rare vagrant to the UK, with the main breeding range being in central Asia and birds wintering mostly in India and Bangladesh. It has had a chequered history of occurrence in the UK. The first accepted record was a male in Orkney in June 1931 but following a review in the early 1970s this and other records were deemed to be escaped cagebirds. This theory is supported by the significant reduction in records following bans on the importation of birds into Europe. Now the first accepted record relates to a first-year bird on Shetland in 2010. This bird too proved tricky as it was originally identified as a Black-headed Bunting, its true identity only coming to light in 2023.