Reporting Rare Bird Sightings

What does the Rare Birds Committee do?
The Rare Birds Committee (RBC) was established by the Ornithological Society of New Zealand (OSNZ) to provide a means of independently verifying records of birds reported from New Zealand. They are also there to help anyone who simply can't identify a bird they have seen. The definition of New Zealand that the RBC follows is “political insular New Zealand out to the edge of the 200 mile Economic Zone”. The RBC is the sole arbiter of what species will or will not appear on the New Zealand List and advises the OSNZ Checklist Committee, whose role it is to produce a list of birds of New Zealand that incorporates current taxonomic consensus.

Reporting forms can be downloaded here and submitted in due course to the Rare Birds Committee Secretary.

Seen a Rare Bird and want to report it fast? Email the Regional Representative within the region the bird was seen and post it on Birding-NZ (if you are not a member of BIRDING-NZ or are having trouble joining please contact Brent Stephenson. If you are not sure if it is rare or unusual for the Region/Country - please notify your Regional Representative anyway.

Click here to go straight to the “List of reportable Species”

So, you’ve seen a rare or unusual bird, or one you can’t identify? What do you do next?

DOCUMENT IT!
It doesn't matter if you have the world's best digital camera and a lens which takes photos of a bird's iris from 200 metres, you have to take some notes. A number of perfectly good records have been rejected by the RBC because the submitter either did not take any notes or didn't submit any with the photo they supplied. A photo does not show every single plumage tract on a bird and some features that may not have been photographed (e.g. the underwing) may be crucial in the identification. Believe it or not, overseas a number of records have been submitted of birds that have actually been photographed in other countries!

What notes should you take?
Look at the bird closely, not taking your eyes off it until you have identified every feature that you can see (and hear if you are lucky). This includes not only the diagnostic field marks, but the details that would enable you to describe that bird (say on the phone) to someone else. Only once you have done this then you should you take pictures, if you have a camera, or write down your description, or both (taking pictures first). If you can sketch the bird, do so. Even if you are hopeless as an artist (and most of us are), you may be able to draw a wing or tail pattern, or a bill shape or pattern. If similar or other birds are in the vicinity, write down its differences from them. Record its appearance, behaviour, posture, and try to transcribe or describe its vocalizations.

If you are with other birdwatchers, do not assume that they will write notes. If several of you are taking notes, the ideal procedure is for each person to write details without influencing the others. It helps no one if someone dictates to everyone what they are seeing. A suggestion to look at a particular feature whilst a number of people are observing, helps focus your attention on a potential key identification mark, whereas a statement that the "”such and such” is quite striking" may influence the content of everyone's notes. Similarly, consulting references during the note-writing process can suggest the presence of features that are not actually present. Resist the temptation to record what you know is there. In a group situation, different observer's notes will be different. Do not worry about missing a detail that someone else has recorded - your notes will have value as an independent document.

Many birdwatchers concentrate on observing and studying the rarity as long as possible, and then write notes immediately after the observation. Although this approach has its advantages, especially if the bird is difficult to observe or does not linger, there is always the possibility that some identification characters may be overlooked. Unless the bird stays around for days, there is little possibility of retrieving overlooked information. The likelihood of overlooking features is lessened if you scribble down notes during the observation, thus forcing yourself to look at the bird in more detail, rather than just observing basic identification features. Most people don't have a photographic memory!

The hardest habit to break is looking at your field guide when you should be looking at the bird and writing down what it looks like. Force yourself to leave the books alone, at least until you have written the best description you can. If you add anything to your notes after consulting field guides, indicate which features were prompted by looking at the books (and specify which books).

The points that can wait until after the bird has gone are the notes on your distance from the bird, the relative position of the birds, the sun, and you, the habitat, exact location, time and date, the optics you used, the names of your fellow observers, and your previous experience with the species.

It is very important to mention features that were not observed, though, if you are aware of them. Some observers feel that mentioning things you missed is a sign of incompetence, but frankly the RBC is more likely to look favourably on a record that has a lot of "I don't know’s rather than one that just seems a little too perfect. No matter how good your memory, the more time that elapses between the observation and recording the information, the more "fuzzy" or biased the details can become, if not forgotten altogether. Most birders would probably be amazed at their poor recall of plumage patterns and fine detail.

Field notes do not have to be neatly printed; information scribbled on a cigarette packet is preferable to nothing at all. These notes, no matter how messy or soiled with mud, sweat, or food, constitute your original data, and, therefore, should be saved whether or not the information is later transcribed to a separate notebook or directly to a more formalized report (e.g. for submission to the RBC). The RBC prefers observers to photocopy their original notes and add them as an appendix to any major rarity. Scribbled notes on small, easily misplaced scraps of paper should be transcribed as quickly as possible to prevent possible loss. Notes in whatever bizarre short-hand you choose to make should be rewritten while information not recorded on paper can still be retrieved from memory. Just don't leave out any detail.

Note taking won't be too much effort if you do a little preparation. Firstly, memorize the terminology describing the parts of a bird in the front pages of your NZ field guide. Secondly, after learning the terminology, practice on the birds in your local patch, and force yourself to describe one bird every time you go out birdwatching (a juvenile goldfinch one day, a godwit or oystercatcher the next, and so on).

FILL IN A FORM
You’ve gone to all that effort to document the rarity - the next logical step is to fill in a form and send it to the RBC. An “Unusual Bird Report” (UBR) form is to be used wherever possible in the interest of uniformity when reporting sightings to the Committee for its consideration. These forms can be obtained from your Regional Representative or Regional Recorder or downloaded as a pdf file here or as a word document here

What does the RBC do once it receives a UBR form?
Reports received by the Convenor fall into various categories. In all cases, a copy of the report and any accompanying documentation is circulated among members, and they are given a period of time within which to get their comments back to the Convenor. In the case of first New Zealand records, Committee members need to be unanimous before such records can be accepted. With other than first New Zealand records, generally the requirement is that two-thirds of members must agree on identity before acceptance. In cases of difficulty, expert opinions are sought from within or outside New Zealand.

Six-monthly reports are published in Southern Bird, showing the status of records then before the Committee for consideration. In addition, a report will be published annually in Notornis describing the more significant records accepted by the Committee during the previous year. This will not, of course, prevent the observers of those birds from separately publishing their own accounts after their records have been accepted by the Committee.

Will the RBC accept a single observer record?
It is often repeated in bird watching circles that the only thing worse than not seeing rare birds is seeing one by yourself as the RBC won't accept it. Well in NZ that isn't true. In NZ if we followed that rule, half the records we get would be thrown out as there simply aren't enough observers!

If the species is a first for New Zealand it will be subject to an extra level of scrutiny, but there is no reason that a thorough record by a competent observer would not be accepted. Certainly a photograph (no matter how bad) significantly bolsters any single observer record.