Surprises in latest BBRC decisions file

The latest 'Work in Progress' (WIP) file from the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC) holds a number of surprising records, including Grey Catbird, Red-throated Thrush and Masked Booby submissions.

BBRC releases a file of 'active' records on a regular basis to provide birders with an unofficial update on the progress of submissions. The committee acts as the national adjudicator of sightings of vagrant birds. Its final decisions, on whether or not it considers records proven and involving wild birds, are published in an annual report in British Birds as an official record.

Among the hundreds of records under recent consideration by the committee are several birds not broadcast at the time of the sighting.

A Masked Booby listed on the WIP file for Kent in 2022 would be the first for Britain if accepted; this bird was photographed in Cape Verde (Lee Gregory).

Missed rarities

A reported Red-throated Thrush on St Mary's during the 'Scilly season' last October [2023], when hundreds of birders take a break on the archipelago, is currently 'In Circulation'. The only previous British record involved a male in Essex in 1994, so those on the islands in the hope of such rarities last autumn might be frustrated at possibly walking past this much-desired Asian species.

According to the WIP file, Devon birders potentially missed out on a Grey Catbird in Plymouth from 3-8 December 2023, although the 2018 bird in Cornwall allowed many birders to add this American vagrant to their British lists. It was seen in a birder's garden on three occasions during its six-day stay, though the garden and surrounding area weren't considered suitable for a twitch. This record is also still under consideration.

The file also includes details of eye-catching seabird claims, with a Tufted Puffin at Porthoer, Caernarfonshire, last September – which was reported at the time – and a Masked Booby submitted for North Foreland, Kent, in October 2022, which wasn't put out at the time. A Kelp Gull at Portland, Dorset, in July 2018, is another surprising older sighting. Decisions are still pending on these records.

In 2017, BBRC invited submissions of claims of hybrid birds thought to involve a rare parent. According to the WIP file, committee members are currently deciding whether an egret present in Lincolnshire for over a year was the result of a mixed pairing between Western Reef Heron and Little Egret.