The British List

2010-07-26T12:43:00.011+01:00

VIEW

NEW | BOURC 40th Report | Dec 2011

All the latest changes to the British List

NEW | The British List on 'The Conference Calls'
The BOU's Steve Dudley discusses the British List with Charlie Moores
and the regular team on Talking Naturally's 'The Conference Calls'

The British List

at 15 Jan 12

Recent Announcements

inc. Changes to the British List (Dec 11)

Latest BOURC report

40th Report (Oct 11)

Latest taxonomic report

7th Report (Oct 11)

The Eagle Owl in Britain

Eagle Owls in Britain

2010-07-26T12:39:00.007+01:00

The status of the Eagle Owl in Britain has had a chequered history. In recent years several key investigations have been undertaken looking at the fossil record and evidence of contemporary records. These are summarised in a BOU paper in British Birds in 2008.

View paper. Melling, T., Dudley, S. & Doherty, P. The Eagle Owl in Britain. British Birds 101: 478-490.

Eagle Owl painting by Richard Allen

The BOURC Commitment

2010-05-18T10:08:00.000+01:00

The BOURC undertakes:

To maintain the scientific accuracy and integrity of the British List by admitting only those species and subspecies that have been identified beyond reasonable doubt, and whose origin is considered to be in accordance with the relevant BOURC categories.
To ensure that all the evidence for identification and the circumstances surrounding the occurrence of potential new species or subspecies is examined thoroughly, fairly and objectively, calling upon external expert opinion where appropriate.
To ensure that any new evidence which is submitted, or which comes to light, that might affect the identification or categorisation of any existing record is reviewed thoroughly, fairly and objectively.
To ensure that all records are dealt with as speedily as practicable, but not so that this in any way prejudices the need for thorough and comprehensive examination of the evidence.
To attempt to answer any questions about its decisions fully and fairly, stating the reasons for these decisions.
So far as is practicable, to consult with the observers where new evidence suggests that a record might no longer be acceptable. The views of the observers will be taken into consideration in any final decision

The official list of birds of Great Britain

2009-12-16T10:27:00.020Z

For over 125 years the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) has maintained a list of birds that have been recorded in Britain (and formerly for Ireland).

Records of birds new to Britain are passed to the British Ornithologists’ Union’s Records Committee (BOURC) by the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC) after that committee has examined them. The BOURC Secretary prepares a file summarising each record. The file contains original descriptions and supporting documentation, including BBRC comments, correspondence from independent specialists, an analysis of the captive status of the species and its escape likelihood, and extracts from books and journals referring to migration and vagrancy patterns. Records are circulated by post and require unanimous agreement on identification and a two-thirds majority on categorisation. All files are archived for future reference.

The Committee also studies taxonomic advances and initiates research into this field. In October 2002, the Committee’s Taxonomic Sub-committee published a paper in Ibis setting outlining the basis on which they will base their taxonomic decisions (Guidelines for assigning species rank. Helbig et al. Ibis(2002) 144: 518-525).

Information on feral populations is monitored, and reviews are undertaken of older records. Anyone can ask for old or rejected records to be reviewed by the BOURC if they provide fresh evidence to justify re-examination.

This is time-consuming work, particularly when it involves detailed research or discussions with experts who are often based abroad.

The 'Official' British List

The following organisations have indicated their support for the work undertaken by the BOU and its Records Committee in maintaining a list of birds recorded in Britain. They have indicated that the decisions on both status and taxonomy reached by BOURC are accepted by them as comprising the 'official' British List.

● British Trust for Ornithology ● Countryside Council for Wales ● English Nature ● Joint Nature Conservation Committee ● Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ● Scottish Natural Heritage ● Scottish Ornithologists' Club ● Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust ● The Wildlife Trusts

Publication of BOURC decisions

The BOURC publishes regular reports in Ibis, the BOU’s scientific journal. As few birders regularly seeIbis, information is press-released to the main birding magazines, who also receive pre-publication copies of the Ibis reports. The magazines use some of this information as the basis for news items or articles, but much of the BOURC’s work goes unreported. BOURC members occasionally write longer papers on species reviews and decisions for publication in birding magazines. Decisions are notified to appropriate recorders and/or the original observers.

The role of the British Birds Rarities Committee

The BOURC works closely with the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC). BBRC's function is to collect, investigate and apply uniform standards to claimed records of rare birds in England, Scotland and Wales, and ‘at sea’ within the British Economic Zone, which now extends to 200 nautical miles (370 km). The BBRC publishes an annual report in British Birds which includes the essential details of the rarities seen in Britain in the previous year. The BBRC also assesses records from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, at the request of the birdwatchers and ornithologists there.

BOURC and BBRC – why two committees?

For records relating to new species for Britain (a ‘first’), the BOURC looks at identification, taxonomy and the origin of the bird. Detailed investigations into racial and species identification, escape likelihood and vagrancy potential are undertaken to determine the validity of the record before admission to the British List.

The BOURC alone decides which species are to be admitted to the British List and how they are to be categorised. The BOURC also considers records of all major rarities, particularly those prior to 1958 (when BBRC was founded), monitors introduced populations for possible admittance to or deletion from the list, and reviews taxonomy and nomenclature in general. For ‘first’ records, the BBRC is concerned solely with identification. However, the BBRC also assesses large numbers of subsequent records of major rarities after 1958. The workload of both Committees is substantial, and complementary.

The BOURC maintains the British List on behalf of the BOU, legislators and the international birdwatching and ornithological communities.

In 1997, the BOURC worked in liaison with the government’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and others to revise the categories used in the British List to give them more relevance to conservationists and policy makers. The main revision included the sub-division of Category C (birds introduced by man) which was further updated in 2005.

Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands

The BOU maintains the British List - the official list of birds recorded from England, Scotland and Wales.

The Isle of Man has its own list which is maintained by the Manx Ornithological Society (MOS). The Isle of Man follow BOU and occasionally seek our advice on matters relating to their list. Some Isle of Man items are occasionally covered in BOURC reports and papers.

Ireland is covered by two recording authorities. The Northern Ireland Birdwatchers’ Association (NIBA) maintains the list for Northern Ireland and the Irish Rare Birds Committee (IRBC) maintains the list for he Republic of Ireland.

Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands are not covered in any reports or lists produced by the BOURC.

The BOURC Commitment

The BOURC commits to undertakes:

· To maintain the scientific accuracy and integrity of the BOU list of British birds by admitting only those species and subspecies that have been identified beyond reasonable doubt, and whose origin is considered to be in accordance with the relevant BOURC categories.

· To ensure that all the evidence for identification and the circumstances surrounding the occurrence of potential new species or subspecies is examined thoroughly, fairly and objectively, calling upon external expert opinion where appropriate.

· To ensure that any new evidence which is submitted, or which comes to light, that might affect the identification or categorisation of any existing record is reviewed thoroughly, fairly and objectively.

· To ensure that all records are dealt with as speedily as practicable, but not so that this in any way prejudices the need for thorough and comprehensive examination of the evidence.

· To attempt to answer any questions about its decisions fully and fairly, stating the reasons for these decisions.

· So far as is practicable, to consult with the observers where new evidence suggests that a record might no longer be acceptable. The views of the observers will be taken into consideration in any final decision.

BOU and English bird names

2009-12-15T16:14:00.010Z

As outlined in the BOURC's 35th report, the BOU will continue to follow the International Ornithological Congress's recommendations for English bird names at the international level. The Committee's adoption of Gill & Wright (2006) (now updated, see Gill & Donsker, 2010) is part of the wider BOU adoption of this work for English names across all BOU activities and publications (including Ibis ).

The BOU sees having a set of agreed English names for international use is important, especially as the understanding of scientific names continues to diminish and scientific names themselves are no more stable than English names. In an increasingly English-speaking world, English names will be easier for the majority to remember than increasingly unfamiliar scientific names. However, stability is yet to arrive even at the international level since some international names have changes between the publication of Gill & Wright (2006) and Gill & Donsker (2010). Other changes may yet follow as these international names gain recognition globally.

However, vernacular names remain the most familiar identifier for British birds for British birders, so BOURC will continue to publish the English vernacular name in current usage within Britain in updates to the British List and in reports and other Committee publications.

Vernacular names themselves are not completely stable and do change over time. Such changes are largely generational differences driven in the main by the publications of the day.

Since the publication of the second edition of ‘A List of British Birds' (BOU 1923) there have been many changes to the vernacular names of even some of the most familiar of British birds. In 1923 the Robin was known as Redbreast, tits were titmice and the Dunnock was the Hedge-Sparrow (note the hyphen). Many less familiar species have also seen name changes such as Arctic Skua which used to be known as Buffon's Skua, and Cattle Egret was Buff-backed Heron. In 1923 the list of British bird names also contained many inconsistencies, none more so than the inconsistent and seemingly random use of hyphens, e.g. Black-Grouse (but no hyphen in Red Grouse) and Reed-Bunting (but no hyphen is Little Bunting). Many of these hyphenated forms have since been dropped and family names are more clearly defined.

The use of hyphens can however be very useful in helping to differentiate between species, even at the vernacular level. For many years birders have used Stone Curlew for Burhinus oedicnemus, but this suggests that this species is related to the Numenius curlews such as Curlew and Whimbrel when it clearly isn't. The same also applies to Honey Buzzard Pernis apivorus, which is not related to the Buteo buzzards, and Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax which is not an Ardea heron or related to any of the smaller heron species. In these instances, the BOURC feels that it is justified to alter the written form of a vernacular name without changing the spoken form of the name in order to make the true species form more distinct. As such, the BOURC will now use the vernacular names of Stone-curlew, Honey-buzzard and Night-heron in its publications.

We have added a table of bird names (Excel file) to the BOU website which includes the current English vernacular name, the now agreed international English name (where different to the vernacular), the current scientific name, and the 1923 English vernacular and scientific names. This table amply illustrates the many changes made to both vernacular and scientific names since 1923, and highlights that neither set of names has been any more stable than the other during this period. English vernacular and international use names have proved more stable than scientific names in recent years (see the changes to the scientific names of terns hirundines and tits in Sangster et al , 2005, Ibis 147: 821-826 – this paper alone contained 15 changes to the 29 scientific names of species across these three groups, with no changes to any of the 29 English names) and will probably continue to be more stable as ongoing taxonomic research is more likely to see changes to scientific names than it is to English names.

DOWNLOAD English and scientific names – 1923 to 2010 (Excel file)

Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Sixth report

2009-11-18T08:44:00.004Z

A revised taxonomic sequence of the passerines

Numerous molecular studies have been published over the last two decades that have greatly expanded our knowledge of the phylogenetic relationships among passerines. A review of this literature indicates that the position of almost all major groups of passerines has been clarified. The taxonomic sequence is determined based on the principle that, for each branching point in the best-supported phylogeny, the less-speciose group should be listed first. The sixth report of the BOURC's Taxonomic Sub-committee sets out the basis on which these changes are recommended for the British List.

View the TSC 6th report. Previous TSC reports and other papers can be viewed here.

TSC recommendations only come in to effect for the British List when adopted by the BOURC and published in their own reports. The BOURC's next (38th) report will be published in the January 2010 issue of Ibis. Previous BOURC reports and other papers can be viewed here.