Finding a rare bird is fun. Chasing a rare bird is fun. Twitching a rare bird is fun. Reporting a rare bird? Not so fun, which is why I have been so very negligent in filling out the form to report the Yellow-headed Blackbird that I saw last summer at Jones Beach to the to the New York State Avian Records Committee. There is really no excuse for my procrastination other than I had never done such a report and, in the abstract, it seems kind of intimidating to report a sighting to the grand poobahs of the New York State birding scene. But after chasing the Magnificent Frigatebird I was contacted by one of the members of the committee who wanted to make sure I was going to submit my pics of the bird, so I figured that if I was going to do that then I should definitely report “my” Yellow-headed Blackbird and get the credit for it.
Now, having never filled out a rare bid report I was worried that it would be extremely onerous. Fortunately, NYSARC has a very easy online form that took me a total of about ten minutes to complete. Unfortunately, I did not have the best notes from the day I first saw the bird, but I think they are enough, especially when paired with the pictures I took, for the committee to approve the record.
But why report at all? Well, first off, birds rarely seen in New York State are, well, rarely seen in New York State. But what if the bird starts showing up more often and becomes a regular visitor? How will this change be known unless there are quantifiable records of an increasing number of sightings? They won’t, which is one reason why reporting rare birds in the state to NYSARC is so important. Take, for example, the Eurasian Collared-Dove. It is currently an occasional visitor to the state but further south it is becoming a breeder and a year-round resident. The only way to track this bird’s northward range expansion with any detail is through the efforts of state rare bird committees.
Another simple reason to report rare birds is so the state’s checklist stays accurate. This past Saturday, while I was chasing the frigatebird, Doug Gochfield, a birder in Brooklyn (and, coincedentally, the guy who helped me find the Eurasian Collared-Dove last year), discovered and photographed what is almost definitely the first-ever Yellow Wagtail in the history of the state. But for it to be added to the New York State checklist he needs to fill out a report and NYSARC has to approve it. Otherwise, anyone could go out into their local park and say they saw a Resplendant Quetzal riding on the back of a White-tailed Eagle and in one fell swoop add two birds to the New York State checklist (imagine filling out that report!).
Most birders love to keep lists and records committees help us to keep our lists accurately. There is the chance, however, that if one submits a record that the record could be rejected. Does this mean that you have to strike the bird from your life list? No! It doesn’t even mean that you didn’t see the bird! Jackbooted thugs from the records committee won’t come pounding at your door demanding access to your computer to erase your record if your report is denied. Sometimes, though, a record might be rejected for lack of detail in the report, or partially rejected because it could be one of two or more species (for example the frigatebird I chased this weekend could possibly a Greater Frigatebird, and the hope is that the pictures taken by me and others will show definitely that it is not). Another possible reason for the rejection of a record is that there might be a chance that a bird is an escapee from a cage, zoo, aviary, or breeding facility. Only wild birds make the checklist and if a normally wary goose is coming up to birders and begging for scraps then odds are the bird will not be accepted by the committee.
So, what I would say to a birder who has found a rare bird is to take good notes, get pictures if you can, and report the darned thing! It is not a difficult thing to do and you will be helping the birding community by giving us all a better picture of what is out there to see.
At the current pace of NYSARC your Frigatebird Sp. should be accpeted sometime late in the year 2018.
And don’t think just because you are not a known birder your record won’t get accepted, NYSARC has rejected Sibley (and with good reason in my opinion). Photographic evidence is key to getting a record accepted, especially a 1st state record. Less rare species or straight forward ID (like Swallow-tailed Kit), require less informaition.
That is why if you think you have a rare bird, you have to make notes of everything, the kind of tree it was in, the habitat, what other species it was associating with, lighting conditions, weather, behavior of the bird, plumage details, size, shape and try and do this BEFORE you start looking at a field guide. Once you look at a field guide, your mind will start to possibly remember details that were not there, so be careful!
And Corey, why would you be upset if it was a Greater Frigatebird? That would be an even better bird for NY!
@Will: I’m not worried about it being considered a Greater Frigatebird, I’m worried about it only being accepted as frigatebird sp.
And while NYSARC might be a bit behind on deciding on reports they are volunteers…and I’d rather them err on the side of caution than approve stuff willy-nilly (yes, I just typed “willy-nilly”).
Excellent post Corey. It can be intimidating for some birders to out their name on the line with their state rare bird committee, but it’s important to document vagrancies all over the US. It’s no shame to get a bird rejected anyway, and it reinforces the importance of field notes.
I suspect under the circumstances, Mag Frig is really the only option, but isn’t there one record of Great Frig in the ABA area? Too bad it wasn’t a female, those are easier to distinguish by sight.
My frustration with NYSARC is this. There are many rare birds that were documented to death. There are photos and likely a million people who saw them (granted only 2 filed reports), there is no reason why it should take years to accept a record of Northern Hawk Owl.
I understand their are some cases which require more thought, and they can simply release a yearly list like this.
Year 2008: Accepted Records
Year 2008: Rejected Records
Year 2008: PENDING Records
The yes/no stuff gets cleared through quickly, which helps keep things up to date, while at the same time being cautious. NYSARC is now what, 4 or 5 years behind?
I have done 1 NYSARC report of a Hoary Redpoll, between the time I submitted the report (which has not been approved or declined yet) Hoary Redpoll has been dropped off the reviewable list!
Ok, I’ll stop ranting, but I think there is room for improvement and with e-mail and internet these days, there is really no excuse for extended delays like this.
The German records committee is 8 years behind, close to a decade.
Anyone still out there to complain about “4 or 5 years”?
As Corey has clearly outlined there are many benefits to submitting documentation to state or regional records committees. They provide a permanent record of your sighting and the materials are usually made available to future birders and researchers. Preparing written descriptions or describing the logic that went into the identification is a great way to enhance your birding skills. It really does take you to a new level. You learn to look more closely at birds and to more carefully consider the alternative possibilities, plumage stage, age of the bird and so on. Prior experience is usually not a factor in acceptance of reports. The major reason for non-acceptance is simply that the report does not describe the bird well enough or fails to exclude very similar species.
NYSARC is not quite a slow as Will suggests. We have just completed voting on the 2006 reports and the 2004 Annual Report has just been published with the 2005 report going to press shortly. Yes, NYSARC would very much like to be more current but the review process does take a long time. One reason is that people don’t actually submit their reports until months or years (or occasionally decades!!) after the sighting. A brief delay is not a bad thing as it allows the observer to carefully prepare their report and once the description is written, do some research as to the identification, patterns of previous vagrancy and so on. NYSARC has debated accelerated acceptance of more straightforward reports (eg. the photographed Northern Hawk Owl mentioned above) or reports of great interest such as first state records. In the end, it was felt that things would get too disjointed and that we should strive to publish the majority of reports for each year as a single block. No doubt the committee will continue to debate this worthwhile issue, hoping to find a practical solution. As Corey also mentioned, the Committee is composed of volunteers who are also very active birders with additional obligations elsewhere. Research (museums, literature, correspondence with experts, follow up with observers etc) is often required and sometimes the written analysis by the Committee is far more extensive than the information provided by observers.
These are probably the main reasons that most rare bird committees the world over are a little bit behind in publishing the results of their deliberations. It is not ideal but surely it is better to be correct than to accept or reject reports in error.
I submitted my sighting of a wilson’s plover at Jones Beach State Park last week to NYSARC. It was easy to do. I submitted the sighting to ebird and I got the automatic follow-up email asking about details. I cut and pasted most of my response to ebird for the NYSARC report.
“anyone could go out into their local park and say they saw a Resplendant Quetzal riding on the back of a White-tailed Eagle”
This summer at the pond at Forest Park I did see a male red-winged blackbird on the back of a great egret. I did a double take when I saw it. A blackbird was swooping down on a great egret, but the egret ignored it completely. The blackbird landed on the egret and started pecking at it, but the egret still ignored it. The black bird seemed to give up pecking and just sat on the egret. It was there for close to a minute until the egret moved and flew across the pond.
good stuff