Abstract: The European Stonechat is a common breeding bird in the Liptov region as well as in the whole of Slovakia. It is a migratory species with wintering sites mainly in the north-western parts of Africa. However, several populations regularly winter in Europe, particularly in Spain, France, Italy and Grait Britain, with an increasing number of winter occurrences in Central Europe including the southern and western parts of Slovakia. Here we present an observation of a female European Stonechat recorded on 14.1.2025 in the town of Liptovský Mikuláš (Northern Slovakia), at 576 m a.s.l. (49.0783942N, 19.6102900E). The morning temperature at the site on that day was lower than minus 10 °C, with patchy snow cover. To the best of our knowledge, this is the northernmost and highest-elevation winter occurrence of the European Stonechat in Slovakia. We hypothesise that warmer winters could lead to more frequent wintering of this species in more northern areas.

Key words: wintering, migration, passerine species, climate change