British Birds Rarities Committee

It assesses claimed sightings of bird species that are rarely seen in Britain, based on descriptions, photographs and video recordings submitted by observers.

The BBRC covers around 280 species whose annually recorded sightings in Britain fall below a threshold deemed to signify rarity.

[1] Its original purpose was to provide a means whereby uniform assessment standards could be applied to all rare bird records across Britain.

[2] The most recent statement of the British Birds Rarities Committee's role is given in Bradshaw, Harvey and Steele (2004): BBRC aims to maintain an accurate database of the occurrence of rare taxa in Britain, in order to enable individuals or organisations to assess the current status of, and any changes in, the patterns of occurrence and distribution of these taxa in Britain.Contradictory information has been published on the exact nature of the committee's status.

In Birders: Tales of a Tribe,[4] author Mark Cocker erroneously describes the committee as a "statutory vetting body" (i.e. one established by an Act of Parliament).

The committee generally considers only the records of species rare enough to meet its criteria for inclusion on the BBRC rarities list, based on a numerical threshold.

[1] Kentish Plover was readmitted in 2020 following the loss of breeding populations in both the UK and nearby continental Europe leading to a massive decline in records.

[21] Many other species and subspecies have been removed over the years: Cetti's warbler (in 1976);[22] long-tailed skua (in 1979);[23] common crane and ring-billed gull (in 1987);[24] surf scoter, little egret, European bee-eater, Pallas's warbler and woodchat shrike (in 1990);[25] green-winged teal (in 1992);[26] ring-necked duck, greater short-toed lark and little bunting (in 1993);[27] white-tailed eagle and Kumlien's gull (in 1998);[17] American wigeon, black-crowned night heron and rose-coloured starling (in 2001);[28] and black brant (in 2005).

[38] In 1999, the BBRC set up the "RIACT" (Racial Identification Amongst Changing Taxonomy) group to advise on how records of rare subspecies should be treated.

[39] RIACT published its first report in 2006, setting out the subspecies it believed were sufficiently diagnosable, and that occurred infrequently enough to justify being assessed by the rarities committee.

[42] The current chairman, the committee's seventh, is Adam Rowlands;[43] the six previous chairmen were Philip Hollom (1959–72), Ian Wallace (1972–76), Peter J.

[45] Its previous secretaries were G. A. Pyman (1959–61), Christopher M. Swaine (1961–63), Denzil D. Harber (1963–66), F. R. Smith (1966–75), J. N. Dymond (1975–77), J. O'Sullivan (1977–78) and Mike Rogers (1978–2006).

[50] Some older data is missing, as the committee's files were originally held by the editors of British Birds, and they were not transferred to the new owners of the magazine when it was sold in the 1960s.

[13] The report typically begins with an introduction, summarising the most significant birds occurring during the year, and discussing any current issues relating to the committee's work.

[53] Species that have caused particular problems include black kite, great snipe, gyrfalcon, gull-billed tern, and North Atlantic little shearwater.

[75] Following the split of Bonelli's warbler into two species, the committee reviewed all the 121 accepted records, and concluded that 51 were western and two were eastern; for the remainder, not enough evidence was available to make a firm decision.

[80] This review, the results of which were published in 1989,[81] established a racial identification for a number of adult isabelline shrikes previously accepted to species level.

A preliminary set of results of this review was published in 2003;[82] four previously accepted individuals were rejected, including one, in Cambridgeshire in 1978, which is now thought have been a hybrid with red-backed shrike.

[91] In 2003, the committee revised its assessment criteria for male pine buntings, redefining some birds previously considered hybrids as acceptable, but requiring an overall greater level of precision in descriptions, and reviewed past records in the light of these changes.

[105] Occasionally, decisions have been delayed due to non-ornithological factors, such as the loss by the Royal Mail of a file on Britain's first lesser short-toed lark.

[115] They argued that the Seabirds Advisory Panel's assessment of the record was at fault, and a critical reappraisal of the evidence should have been prompted by the (then relatively recent) discovery in the North Atlantic of Swinhoe's storm petrel, and that the committee was instead too heavily swayed by the views of a single expert.

In the light of the rejection of a record of Blyth's reed warbler in Shetland in 1997, Vinicombe and Pennington wrote to British Birds to question the decision.

Vittery, and Moss Taylor[123] both expressed concern that BBRC was adopting too strict an approach for records of birds seen only by their finder.

[126] Graham Bell, another former member, writing in response to Shaw's article, has accused the committee of adopted unfounded suspicions, arguing that just because a competent observer moves to an underwatched part of the country, their abilities do not change.

[127] One of the observers who Wallace claimed was blacklisted, Alan Vittery, also contributed to the debate, stating that he had been informed by the BBRC that they would not consider any single-observer record he submitted, unless supported by a photograph.

[130] A subcommittee was set up in 1997 to undertake a review of rare bird records from the years immediately prior to BBRC's establishment.

The purpose of the review was 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 scrutiny.

These included a claimed white-tailed eagle, which broke into a chicken-run in a garden and stole a chicken, three little crakes, three Eurasian scops owls, the only late December record of tawny pipit, three black-eared wheatears, a record of two White's thrushes together in April, a spring lanceolated warbler, two moustached warblers and a pine grosbeak.

Furthermore, issues were found with the identification of Britain's first western sandpiper, on Fair Isle in 1956,[132] and these led the BOURC to reject this record.

[133] The subcommittee's final report also hints at the prospect that some records from immediately prior to 1950 may be incorrect; because these fell outside the timeframes of the review they were not reassessed.