Re: [cobirds] State Bird Records Committee

Mark and Cobirds:

I will share the primary reason I believe that Bird Records Committees (BRCs) are important.  They are repositories for bird records.  A one-stop shop.  Yes, one can submit photos to eBird, Cobirds, and any number of other online sites, but availability to that information is not long-lived.  A BRC acts like a museum.  The records submitted to it are available for easy, public consumption in perpetuity.  Yes, there is the vetting process that BRCs perform for what constitutes a "record", and that is important, but to me it is the repository aspect that makes BRCs necessary.

One could argue that museums are no longer necessary because collecting is not performed at the same level as in the past.  Yet, they provide a valuable resource to researchers because of their repositories of specimens.  In much the same way, BRCs provide a repository of bird records that can be used by researchers now and 100 years from now.  Try finding any information about the Hooded Oriole on the internet next year, 5 years from now, or in 50 years.  Instant gratification and information sharing is great, but it is fleeting.  BRCs are in it for the long-haul.

respectfully,

Doug Faulkner

Arvada, CO

On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 9:35 AM, 'Mark Obmascik' via Colorado Birds <cobirds@googlegroups.com> wrote:

In an age of Ebird, CObirds, and even Facebook bird ID groups, why do Colorado and other states still have state bird record committees?

After John Ealy found the hooded oriole in his Douglas County backyard, many excellent birders asked to have documentation submitted to the Colorado Bird Records Committee, which decides whether rare-bird reports are legitimate. I submitted, but the process is a hassle. The website crashed, and instructions weren't always clear.

I know this an all-volunteer effort, and money is short, and I'm always in favor of something that increases interest in and knowledge about birds, but what does the committee do that isn't already being done elsewhere in a more convenient way? In my experience, Ebird reviewers do an excellent job of screening entries. (They've found a bunch of my mistakes.) Ebird and CObirds make it easy to add photos. And with its international reach, Facebook allows fast access to ID experts whose yardbirds are our vagrants.

It's also tough for me to forget how the committee decided that Bill Brockner's Baikal teal, seen by me and hundreds others behind the Baskin Robbins in Evergreen a few years back, was not actually a real Baikal teal. 

If there's a good reason to keep submitting to bird records committees, I'd like to hear it.

Good birding.

Mark Obmascik

Denver, CO

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