British Birds Rarities Committee

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The British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC), established in 1958, is the recognised national rarities committee for Britain and adjudicates sightings on basis of likelihood of genuine vagrancy, descriptions photographs and the like submitted by birdwatchers.

Its findings are usually published in British Birds.

[edit] Species covered

The committee considers only records of species which are rare enough to meet its criteria for inclusion on the BBRC rarities list. In order to qualify for inclusion, a species either has to have been recorded fewer than 200 times in Britain ever, or it has to have been recorded on 100 or fewer occasions in the last decade.

[edit] List of members of BBRC (1958 to date)

The following individuals have served on BBRC^[1]:

[edit] Some notable records reviewed

[edit] The Druridge Bay curlew

See The Druridge Bay curlew

The BBRC conducted a detailed review into the controversial identification of a curlew seen in Northumberland in 1998, coming to the conclusion that it was, as had been believed by many observers, a first-summer Slender-billed Curlew. This identification was accepted by the British Ornithologists Union's Records Committee, leading to the addition of this species to the British List. ^[2]

[edit] Review of 1950-1958 records, and the Tiree Ascension Frigatebird

A BBRC subcommittee is currently undertaking a review of rare bird records from the years immediately prior to its establishment. The rationale for this is to ensure that all records from 1950 onwards (the cut-off date for Category A of the BOU British List of birds) have been subjected to a similar level of srcutiny. Most of the results of this review have not yet been reported, however, one result which has is the reidentification of a frigatebird record from Tiree in 1953. Previously identified as a Magnificent Frigatebird, the BBRC review concluded that the bird was in fact an Ascension Frigatebird, the only individual of this species ever identified in Europe (Walbridge, Small & McGowan 2003). ^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ Dean, Alan R. (2007) The British Birds Rarities Committee: a review of its history, publications and procedures British Birds 100:149-176
2. ^ Steele, Jimmy and Didier Vangeluwe (2002) From the Rarities Committee's files: the Slender-billed Curlew at Druridge Bay, Northumberland, in 1998 British Birds 95(6):279-299
3. ^ Walbridge, Grahame, Brian Small and Robert Y. McGowan (2003) "From the Rarities Committees files: Ascension Frigatebird on Tiree - new to the Western Palearctic" (British Birds 96:58-73)

[edit] External links

• BBRC website