Rare passage migrant, mainly in the autumn and, former summer visitor.

Wrynecks were formerly common summer visitors to Britain but are now only uncommon autumn migrants. The cause of their decline, which began in 1900, and loss as a breeding species has not been established, loss of old pasture has been suggested.

In Hertfordshire they were common as a breeding species in the nineteenth century. Foster (1914) recorded that the Wryneck, “occurs regularly in all parts of the district as a summer visitor but appears to be less common than formerly”. By 1935 they were considered as scarce in the County, and Sage (1959) described them as, “local in extreme, if not extinct except as a migrant”. The last confirmed breeding in the County was at Ringshall near Little Gaddesdon in 1977. In July of that year an adult was also seen feeding a juvenile near Stevenage, which could also be considered as possible evidence of local breeding.

Other records for Stevenage are of one on 29 September 1968, one seen for 20 minutes in the garden of 42 Rockingham Way on 29 August 1970, one seen feeding on the ground at Bessemer Drive in September 1981 and, single birds at Norton Green Tip on 12 September 2005, from 2 to 5 September 2015, and, 7 and 8 September 2016. 

The one spring record is of one in a Tates Way garden on 1 May 2011.