Records Committee
Review List Changes
Review List Changes

Discussion
 Deadline --7 Aug 2025 
 

1. Bryant  - 9 Jul      (Bold and italics added by webmaster)

Red Knot-this species is severely declining across its range, including Utah. It used to be fairly easy to find flocks of a dozen or more on the Antelope Island Causeway in spring, but the past few years it's become harder and usually just a few. If you look at records on eBird, they are pretty rare away from Great Salt Lake: a few from Utah Lake, but all others single birds seen once. I therefore propose we put them on the review list excluding the Great Salt Lake, specially the area west of I-15, north of I-80, south of I-84 and Highway 30 in Box Elder county, with the western boundary being the 113th longitude.

Inca Dove-once common in the lowlands of Washington county, this species is possibly extirpated with no records since 2023, no documented records(photos) since 2022. Review in all of Utah. Again, our future roll may be shifting to documenting declining species

Lesser Nighthawk-this species is fairly common in lowlands of Washington county, but exceptionally rare anywhere else. A couple recent records in Northern Utah at Utah Lake and Lee Kay ponds do suggest some are either overlooked or maybe range expansion? I therefore propose we review them outside Washington County.

Other Washington county "edemics",so this is the "can of worms" we were afraid of, and where do we draw the line?

Verdin-unknown outside lowlands of Washington County-some high elevation reports in WA county are probably errors
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher-undocumented outside lowlands of Washington County, but a few reports
Brown-crested Flycatcher-undocumented outside lowlands of Washington County, but a few reports
Rufous-crowned Sparrow-very rare outside lowlands of Washington County, but a recent record with photos from Kane county. Range expansion or overlooked?
Ladder-backed Woodpecker-very rare outside lowlands of Washington County, but a few recent records with photos from Kane county. Range expansion or overlooked?
Painted Redstart-known nesting species in Zion NP, but very rare anywhere else in Utah, including other areas of WA county
Vermilion Flycatcher-resident in lowlands of Washington county, rare, erratic but occasionally seen elsewhere in Utah, mainly in fall/winter/spring. No real pattern to their wandering but it seems to be increasing, but is that because there are more birders?
Costa's Hummingbird-fairly common in lowlands of Washington county, exceptionally rare anywhere else
Anna's Hummingbird-common in lowlands of Washington County, rare elsewhere but records basically statewide, often in winter. Seems to be increasing outside WA county but no evidence of breeding elsewhere. I don't know what's going on here?
Hooded Oriole-common in lowlands of WA county, rare elsewhere but scattered records. No real pattern to records outside WA, no evidence of breeding except one that was paired with a BUOR in SL co., fledged chicks but it is unknown if the chicks were hybrids. No hybrids seen in later years at the same location.
Common Black-Hawk-uncommon in lowlands of WA county, exceptionally rare anywhere else in Utah

Most of these birds are already flagged outside their expected range on eBird, which means documentation is encouraged and records are vetted, but eBird review isn't perfect or consistant, and honestly it can be easier for reviewers to defer the review to the UBRC rather than make a decision on our own, especially for questionable sightings that lack documentation, which is what has been happening.
 

Comments
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Discussion:

4 Aug 2025 (Jeff)

I've been giving this some thought. I'm sure that others have a well, but since we are approaching our deadline without comments to this point. I'll share the following.

I'm a little hesitant about opening the proverbial can of worms by implementing a number of species carve outs that aren't geographically intuitive for birders. Carve outs such as "Great Salt Lake", "Uinta Mountains", or "Lowlands of Washington County" are geographically intuitive, and personally palatable, where an area "between this street and that freeway or highway" isn't geographically intuitive. Hence, I'm not keen on the Red Knot proposal at the moment. I'd rather make it a review species outside of counties bordering the Great Salt Lake since I initially want to stick with county boundaries rather than special carve outs. However, I'm open to the idea of making it a review species when observed away from a carve out such "Great Salt Lake." I say this based on a belief that county eBird reviewers can help monitor records for review species and collaborate with the BRC on such records within their counties. And, a county line is pretty straightforward for a new birder who may need to understand when to submit a record to the BRC. At the same time (if we go further down the carve out path), a county eBird reviewer shouldn't have too much trouble managing carve outs for a few species within their counties if the boundaries for those carve outs are geographically intuitive. Birders may struggle with the idea, but a county eBird reviewer can help educate in such cases. When it comes to Washington County, it seems that the list of carve out exceptions could become confusing to birders since that list would be longer than other counties. With Washington County species that might be considered for a carve out review, we would need a clear criterion for judging when to make a species a review species. Perhaps the need to eliminate species similar to the review species in that area could be such a criterion. If there isn't a similar Washington County species to a bird commonly found in the Lowlands of Washington County, why make it a review species with a special carve out for that county?

I support the idea of adding Inca Dove to the Review List since we are seeing what appears to be a decline and Lesser Nighthawk outside of Washington County as birders are becoming more discerning with species that may be expanding their range.

Jeff
 

Comments
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Discussion:

Comments
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Discussion:

12 Sep 2025 (Mark)

I would like to second Mike’s concerns. “Lowlands of Washington County” is far too ambiguous to be workable. I think that we need to keep our carve-outs to clearly defined boundaries, even if they are imperfect. Counties are clearly the least ambiguous, though I could support the Zion National Park designation, even though a Painted Redstart at Lava Point would presumably be even more unusual than one at Springdale, for example.

So the question becomes, on which side do we err? Do we exempt all of Washington County for Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (for example), and lose records of that species from Pine Valley? Or do we continue to ask for documentation of any record in the county (thus staterwide)?

My inclination is to err on the side of caution, even if it creates more work for us and observers. Since we aren’t eBird, observers who know that something is common in Beaver Dan Wash would probably simply decide to not submit a record.

My 2¢

Mark Stackhouse
 

Comments
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Discussion:

All

I just wanted to clarify my proposal: For all the "Washington County endemics' to Utah, I proposed excluding them from review from all of Washington County, with the exception being the Painted Redstart which is mainly confined to Zion Canyon, therefore we exclude Zion NP. Here is my original text 

 

"Possibly add

Other Washington county "edemics",so this is the "can of worms" we were afraid of, and where do we draw the line?

Verdin-unknown outside lowlands of Washington County-some high elevation reports in WA county are probably errors. Review statewide but exclude from Washington county

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher-undocumented outside lowlands of Washington County, but a few reports. Review statewide but exclude from Washington county

Brown-crested Flycatcher-undocumented outside lowlands of Washington County, but a few reports. Review statewide but exclude from Washington county

 

Rufous-crowned Sparrow-very rare outside lowlands of Washington County, but a recent record with photos from Kane county. Range expansion or overlooked? Review statewide but exclude from Washington county

Ladder-backed Woodpecker-very rare outside lowlands of Washington County, but a few recent records with photos from Kane county. Range expansion or overlooked?Review statewide but exclude from Washington county

Painted Redstart-known nesting species in Zion NP, but very rare anywhere else in Utah, including other areas of WA county. Review statewide but exclude from Zion NP.

Vermilion Flycatcher- resident in lowlands of Washington county, rare, erratic but occasionally seen elsewhere in Utah, mainly in fall/winter/spring. No real pattern to their wandering but it seems to be increasing, but is that because there are more birders?Review statewide but exclude from Washington county

Costa's Hummingbird-fairly common in lowlands of Washington county, exceptionally rare anywhere else. Review statewide but exclude from Washington county  [This is already on the Review List with this exclusion, see below]

Anna's Hummingbird-common in lowlands of Washington County, rare elsewhere but records basically statewide, often in winter. Seems to be increasing outside WA county but no evidence of breeding elsewhere. I don't know what's going on here? Review statewide but exclude from Washington county

Hooded Oriole-common in lowlands of WA county, rare elsewhere but scattered records. No real pattern to records outside WA, no evidence of breeding except one that was paired with a BUOR in SL co., fledged chicks but it is unknown if the chicks were hybrids. No hybrids seen in later years at the same location.Review statewide but exclude from Washington county  [This is already on the Review List with this exclusion, see below]

Common Black-Hawk-uncommon in lowlands of WA county, exceptionally rare anywhere else in Utah.Review statewide but exclude from Washington county"

Costa's Hummingbird and Hooded Oriole were already added and  excluded in Washington Co. as per Kris Purdy's proposal last year, but I overlooked that in error and have removed those species.

 

So, even though many species are only found in the lowlands, I think that's too fine of a scale and it will be up to the eBird reviewer(s) to deal with out of habitat records in Washington county, which is actually a much bigger problem statewide for all of eBird, but I digress...

 

Thanks

Bryant

Comments
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Discussion:

12 Sep 2025 (Jeff)

Thank you, Bryant, for the draft proposal. I've read through it once and understand your reasoning. I will give more thought to it, but I have an initial question that pertains more to those of us who are regional eBird reviewers. In your summary paragraph, you indicate that adding these species will make it easier for eBird reviewers to defer the review of the species to the Records Committee. The eBird Reviewer Handbook, as I understand it, recommends that eBird reviewers make preliminary decisions on such records in a timely manner, without deferring the review to BRCs. We can then reverse our decision if a BRC reaches a different decision. That's how I've been operating as an eBird reviewer so far. On some rare occasions, when an observer disagrees with my decision to not accept their record, I've told them that they can submit a record to the BRC for a higher level review. Are other local eBird reviewers delaying decisions for review species in their queues until a BRC decision is made?

Regards,
Jeff
 

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