The Birders Behind the Bird List

Cast an eye quickly down the 501 birds that make up the official bird list for Massachusetts. While many may be familiar, some may also jump out as seemingly improbable: Mountain Bluebird (sounds like a western bird, right?) or Magnificent Frigatebird (usually seen only from the Gulf of Mexico south), and even the tropical Crested Caracara!

The Crested Caracara, though not this particular bird, was seen in Chatham in 2015. These tropical falcons are often seen hanging out with vultures. (Photo by Brandon Trentler).

These birds don’t get on the official list simply on the basis of someone reporting that they saw them. Even if those individuals are extremely good birders.

Back in 1989, the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC) was formed for the purpose of validating all rare bird sightings and keeping our official state bird list official.

Wellfleet Bay science coordinator Mark Faherty has been a MARC member for a full six-year term and has just stepped down (succeeded by David Sibley. Mass Audubon’s Wayne Petersen recently started a new term). The review process starts with members receiving packets of information about unusual sightings including whatever documentation has been provided. When the committee meets in person, it’s to take up sightings that were not unanimously accepted or rejected after two rounds of voting.

Mark says a good photo alone isn’t a slam-dunk for acceptance and that a few very experienced birders have been proved wrong by their own pictures. “Many a feather has been ruffled when birders find out their records haven’t been accepted. Some have literally disappeared from the scene for years after a rejection,” he notes. Mark says one birder, a member of the committee no less, quit the MARC when his sighting wasn’t accepted!

On the flip side, good pictures of an unusual bird can make a lesser-known birder a star. A recent example: a committee member happened upon a Flickr photo stream showing an image of a bird tentatively identified as a Greater Yellowlegs. But the bird turned out to be an extremely rare Common Greenshank, a resident of Europe and Asia, and a first record for the whole US East Coast.

This photo of a very rare Common Greenshank was captured in Gloucester by Stan Deutsch who thought it might be a Greater Yellowlegs. Greenshanks are members of the same genus (Tringa) as yellowlegs, as are Willets.

Among Mark’s most memorable accepted records during his MARC tenure? “Hard to say—you’re dealing with the rarest of the rare, like the Fea’s Petrel on George’s Bank in 2014, which was a first state record and only the second record for the Western Atlantic!”

MARC member Scott Surner was among those who spotted this uber rare Fea’s Petrel offshore. (Photo by Scott Surner)

Interestingly, some of the most high profile bird sightings generating a ton of buzz, such as a “probable Yellowed-legged Gull” 6 years ago in Hyannis, are ultimately thrown out by the committee. This happened with gull below after video of the bird’s call revealed it to be a likely hybrid.

A purported Yellow-legged Gull that caused quite a stir in Hyannis in 2011. It was ultimately rejected as a cross between a Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gull. When faced with a challenging species, the committee will often consult an expert in a region where the bird is common– in this case, Europe. (Photo courtesy of Mary Richmond).

And then some records take years to get a ruling—such as the Reddish Egret seen by sanctuary director Bob Prescott here at Wellfleet Bay in 1991, which only recently was accepted by the committee. Mark says this reflects the fact the committee has a constant backlog of old business and unadjudicated records dating back 100 years or more in some cases.

This Reddish Egret was photographed by Roger Everett.

To some, an avian records committee could seem like an extreme case of “inside baseball”, the nerdiest of bird-nerd activities reserved for only the most sophisticated enthusiasts. But it’s really about preserving the state’s long, storied birding history. We are, after all, one of only two states east of the Mississippi with more than 500 species on our state list, the other being Florida.

And even if your bird record is rejected now, some future MARC could very well reverse that ruling one day and you and your bird sighting would become part of that official list!

Thanks to Mark Faherty for his help with this post. The MARC’s website has a lot of good information, including the current official bird list, the review list—that is, the species that will be accepted for committee review—and a database of all accepted records.

2 thoughts on “The Birders Behind the Bird List

  1. Diana Abrashkin

    This reminds me of when I was a brand-new birder and saw a Ruddy Shelduck at Great Meadows. Needless to say, everybody thought I was nuts, but then an experienced birder saw it, and explained it must have been an escapee from captivity.

    Reply

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