Date: 1/14/25 12:37 pm From: Kimball Garrett via groups.io <cyanolyca818...> Subject: [CALBIRDS] News from the California Bird Records Committee
Birders,
The California Bird Records Committee held its annual meeting at the offices of H. T. Harvey and Associates in Los Gatos on Saturday, 11 January 2025.
The terms of Jon Feenstra, Gary Nunn. and Steve Tucker have ended, and the newly elected additions to the Committee are Adam Searcy, Dessi Sieburth, and Lynette Williams Duman. Tom Benson was elected to another term as CBRC Secretary, Kimball Garrett was elected to another term as Chair, and Andy Birch was elected Vice-Chair. In order to promote more diversity within the Committee, a by-law change was adopted that will require retiring members to take at least two years off (increased from one year) before being eligible to be re-elected to the Committee. The expansion of the Committee from nine Voting Members to twelve Voting Members was also discussed at length, but this proposal was deferred until next year to give the Committee time to manage the logistics of such a change.
Chimney Swift was proposed for addition to the review list, and Short-tailed Albatross, Greater Pewee, and Thick-billed Kingbird were proposed for removal from the review list. Following discussion, none of these additions or removals were adopted.
The Committee discussed a number of records for which no decision had been reached after three rounds of voting, for which there were "same bird" or date range issues, or which had other issues that one or more members flagged for discussion.
Our sincerest thanks to Steve Rottenborn and Scott Terrill of H. T. Harvey for hosting the meeting, to outgoing members Feenstra, Nunn, and Tucker for their service, to Joe Morlan for maintaining the CBRC website and Jim Tietz for keeping the Table of Updates to "Rare Birds of California" current, to all others who have helped the Committee with its work, and of course to all the birders who submit documentation of review species to the Committee.
If members of the California birding community are interested in learning more about the Committee, you are encouraged to visit our website ( www.californiabirds.org) or contact the Chair (<chair...>) or Secretary (<secretary...>).
