Date: 1/11/26 11:44 am From: Kimball Garrett via groups.io <cyanolyca818...> Subject: [CALBIRDS] News from the California Bird Records Committee
The California Bird Records Committee (CBRC) held its annual meeting via Zoom on 10 January 2026. We present some highlights from the meeting here.
Members Kimball Garrett, Marky Mutchler, and Peter Pyle have rotated off the Committee after serving their three year terms. Newly elected members are Marty Freeland, Ethan Monk, and Jim Tietz.
Andy Birch was elected CBRC Chair, and Marty Freeland was elected Vice-Chair. Tom Benson was elected Secretary for another one-year term.
The committee adopted one new bylaw, as follows: "VI.J.7. Any report or list published by the committee shall follow the taxonomic treatment of the most current American Ornithological Society - North American Classification Committee (AOS-NACC) checklist. If a committee publication includes a species not on the AOS-NACC checklist, a different taxonomic authority may be followed for that species." [Codifying the taxonomic authority followed by the CBRC was deemed important at a time when slightly differing taxonomies are employed by eBird/Clements, AviList, and other authorities. We expect that discrepancies in these taxonomic treatments will continue to diminish over time.]
The Review List was changed as follows:
Short-tailed Albatross was removed Glossy Ibis was removed Connecticut Warbler was added [Note: This species was removed from the review list in 2002, but there were only two reports in the 2002-2025 period; those reports will be reviewed] Northern Cardinal was added [Note: The committee is interested in reports of wild vagrants only; we do not solicit reports from the small coastal slope remnant populations (e.g. in Sepulveda Basin LA, Whittier Narrows area LA, or the Tijuana River Valley/etc. SD), nor do we solicit reports of obvious escapees.]
Vega Gull was not added to the Review list and has not yet been accepted to the California list. The committee continues to further research identification criteria and collate the best-documented eBird reports for evaluation.
Finally, we expect that proposals to add Swinhoe's White-eye and Pin-tailed Whydah to the state list as naturalized non-native species will be evaluated by the committee early in 2026.
Joe Morlan has updated the CBRC website to reflect changes resulting from the 10 January CBRC meeting. See: https://www.californiabirds.org/
