The Excel file that can be uploaded here gives all the species & taxa that are currently assessed by BBRC.
What is in the spreadsheet:
There are two sheets, one titled ‘Current’ gives all taxa that are of interest to BBRC, and the other titled ‘ex-BBRC’ lists all those which have been assessed by BBRC, but are no longer. See below for more detail.
Definition of Columns:
Col A & B: The English and Scientific names of each taxa.
Col C: BOURC Category. For a fuller explanation click here. Left blank for all taxa which are not yet on the British List.
Col D: Species status. Shows those taxa which are a sub-species or in a group (see Definitions below) Left blank for all full species.
Col E: Ref (for British List). Shows in which documents (see below) the taxa is given as being on the British List, and also where any changes to its Species status or Scientific name have been published.
Col F: BBRC Status. See paragraph below for a full definition of this column.
Definitions:
taxa: Covers species, sub-species, and groups of species or sub-species.
group: Two or more closely related taxa which currently cannot always be differentiated in the field. This allows a record to be assessed, and possibly accepted, to be any of the taxa listed in the group.
BBRC Status column
Assess: This taxon is on the British List as Cat A, B and/or C and of sufficient rarity that it is assessed by the BBRC, a.k.a. “A BBRC species”. Our Constitution [here] explains the rarity thresholds we use.
Held: A taxon on the British List and which is “a BBRC species” but currently is being held before submissions will be assessed. The reason they are held will be one of the following:
Review of identification features – criteria for identification are being prepared or are being updated
Awaiting taxonomic research-the taxonomy of the species, sometimes the genus, is currently under review or debated.
Review of records in progress-All submissions, including past records, are being reviewed and the outcome will be given on all records once the review is complete
Note that though the taxon is held, submissions should still be sent to BBRC.
Cat B: A taxon on the British List but has not occurred since end of 1949. Any claim would have to meet the criteria for a ‘First for Britain’ (see BBRC Constitution) and if accepted will be sent on to BOURC for possible ‘promotion’ to Category A.
Cat D: Species that have not been accepted to Category A of the British List due to the uncertain origin of British claims. See BOURC Categories for a full explanation [here]. Records are wanted by BBRC and will be assessed, and then forwarded to BOURC who undertake periodic reviews to determine if the species Category can be resolved to A or E.
RIACT: A taxon which may or may not be on the British List, but is of interest to BBRC. The RIACT paper and subsequent updates provide guidance on what information is required for a submission to be considered by the committee.
(RIACT: Race Identification Amongst Changing Taxonomy. BB 99: 619-645, available from http://www.bbrc.org.uk/resources “Taxa considered, statistics and recorders” )
Claim in progress: A taxon not currently on the British List where at least one claim is being assessed by BBRC. If accepted it will be sent to BOURC for possible admission to the British List. New claims should still be sent in.
Maybe be assignable to a sub-sp: Shown against BBRC species where the claim may be made to a subspecies level, but does not have to be.
Ex-BBRC (followed by a year): A taxon that was BBRC but has become more common and no longer reaches the criteria that would require BBRC assessment. However if a sighting occurred before the year given i.e. the year that it was removed as a BBRC species, then that record is still assessed by the Committee.
Documents used
The information is based on the following documents, with their abbreviations shown in [] brackets:
- The British List: A Checklist of Birds of Britain (7th Edition) :Ibis ( 2006), 148, 526-563 [7th CL]
- BOURC: 34th Report (October 2006) [34th R]
- BOURC: 35th Report (April 2007) [35th R]
- BOURC: 36th Report (November 2007) [36th R] : incorporates 4th TSC Report, see below
- BOURC: 37th Report (October 2008) [37th R] : incorporates 5th TSC Report, see below
- BOURC: 38th Report (October 2009) [38th R] : incorporates 6th TSC Report, see below
- BOURC: 39th Report (October 2010) [39th R]
- BOURC: 40th Report (in prep) [40th R] : will incorporate 7th TSC Report, see below
- Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Fourth report : Ibis (2007), 149, 853-857 [4th TSC]
- Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Fifth report : Ibis (2008), 150, 833-835 [5th TSC]
- Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Sixth report : Ibis (2010), 152, 180-186 [6th TSC]
- Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Seventh report : Ibis (2011), 153, 883-892 [7th TSC]
Note that the BBRC Report “ Rare Birds in Great Britain in 2010”, published in the October edition of British Birds does not include the changes recommended in the 7th TSC. This mainly affects the status of Siberian Stonechat (recommendation to promote to a full species), the new genus Iduna for Thick-billed, Booted, Sykes’s and Eastern Olivaceous Warblers, and the scientific names of some New World warblers.
