Much of the work of the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) consists in the evaluation of evidence for the occurrence of rare birds in Illinois. For this purpose, IORC maintains a “Review List” that consists of all bird forms for which IORC will review all records (possibly excepting records from specified areas for some forms). The Review List includes all species of Casual and Accidental status (less than eight records in the last 10 years), first state records, first state nesting records for a species, and other forms that IORC decides warrant close evaluation. Each year, IORC considers adjustments to the Review List as the status of species changes in the state.
At its 19 March 2022 meeting, IORC made a number of changes to the Review List, all of which involved removing species from the list (due to an increase in the number of records of those species) or excepting records of some species from specific areas. These recent adjustments to the Review List are listed below. The full list is found on the IORC web page.
- Little Gull — removed from the Review List
- Anhinga — records from southern Illinois no longer require documentation
- Black Vulture — removed entirely from the Review List (previously, records from southern Illinois did not require documentation but records from central and northern Illinois did)
- Swallow-tailed Kite — removed from the Review List
- Barn Owl — removed entirely from the Review List (previously, records away from known locations for the species required documentation)
- Townsend’s Solitaire — removed from the Review List
- Hoary Redpoll — removed from the Review List
- White-winged Crossbill — removed from the Review List
- Western Tanager — removed from the Review List
- Painted Bunting — records from the East St. Louis (St. Clair County) area no longer require documentation
Most of the species above still occur only in relatively small numbers, and consequently, observers of these species should include details about their sightings when contributing them to the observational record, for example via eBird or when submitting to seasonal report editors for the reports published in the IOS journal Meadowlark. However, formal review by IORC is no longer necessary. IORC generally will still review records of species recently removed from the Review List when documentation of sightings of those species is submitted directly to IORC.