Species requiring a description
To enable us to present our reports with complete accuracy, contributors are reminded that records of certain species must be supported by descriptions taken in the field or as soon as possible after the sighting – preferably before reference to textbooks.
National and county rarities, considered by the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC) and the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union (YNU) Reports Committee respectively, must be described. Forms can be obtained from any YNU vice-county recorder or the YNU website. It would help both the YOC Recorder and the YNU if descriptions were submitted as soon as possible after the sighting.
Click on the buttons to get to the BBRC and/or YNU websites for information on the latest lists:
YOC Description Species
Additionally, contributors are asked to provide details to the YOC Recorder () for species/subspecies listed here:
| Brent Goose – all races Tundra Bean Goose (Greenland) White-fronted Goose Bewick’s Swan Garganey (away from LDV) Green-winged Teal Red-crested Pochard Scaup Eider Long-tailed Duck Velvet Scoter Red-breasted Merganser Red-throated Diver Black-throated Diver Great Northern Diver Storm-petrel Leach’s Petrel Fulmar Manx Shearwater Red-necked Grebe Slavonian Grebe Black-necked Grebe White Stork Spoonbill Bittern Great Egret Gannet Shag Osprey Goshawk+ Hen Harrier Spotted Crake Corncrake Crane Stone Curlew Dotterel | Bar-tailed Godwit Knot Curlew Sandpiper Temminck’s Stint Sanderling Purple Sandpiper Little Stint Pectoral Sandpiper Red-necked Phalarope Grey Phalarope Spotted Redshank Kittiwake Sabine’s Gull Little Gull Mediterranean Gull Caspian Gull Yellow-legged Gull Little Tern Black Tern Sandwich Tern Roseate Tern Arctic Tern Pomarine Skua Arctic Skua Great Skua Long-tailed Skua Little Auk Razorbill Guillemot Puffin Turtle Dove Long-eared Owl Short-eared Owl Nightjar Bee-eater Hoopoe | Wryneck Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Ring-necked Parakeet Great Grey Shrike Red-backed Shrike Golden Oriole Hooded Crow Raven Willow Tit Bearded Tit Woodlark (away from the main sites) Shore Lark Cetti’s Warbler Wood Warbler Yellow-browed Warbler Barred Warbler Firecrest Ring Ouzel Nightingale Pied Flycatcher Red-breasted Flycatcher Black Redstart Dipper Yellow Wagtail (‘Blue-headed’ race and ‘Channel’ hybrid) Richard’s Pipit Water Pipit + Rock Pipit + Hawfinch Twite Common (“Mealy”) Redpoll Lapland Bunting Snow Bunting |
Furthermore, the Recorder may ask contributors to provide some supporting evidence for some species not listed in the files, taking into account such factors as observer experience, out-of-season occurrences and unusual or difficult plumages, etc. This will be at the Recorder’s discretion and the list of species requiring descriptions is under constant review. Note that if photographs showing key identification features are submitted of these species a field description may not be required (as long as details such as location, date, observer, etc. accompany the photographs).