Introduction
to the Louisiana Bird Records Committee
The
Louisiana Bird Records Committee (henceforth LBRC) was established in 1979 to evaluate
and archive records of unusual species occurring in Louisiana. The LBRC strives
to determine record acceptability to aid in understanding the patterns of
occurrence of rarities in the state. Each record (in the form of observers'
written reports, copies of field notes, photographs, videotape, tape
recordings, or specimens) is reviewed by each of the seven elected Voting
Members in accordance with LBRC Bylaws, LOS News No. 87 (Bylaws updated 23 April 2005).
If a Voting Member is unable to attend an Annual Meeting, their vote at the
Meeting is transferred to an Alternate Member.
Any particular record may be reviewed at an Annual Meeting, circulated to
Voting Members by mail or e-mail, or reviewed directly at the LOS LBRC webpage
“View
Pending Reports.”
All
records submitted to the LBRC are housed in the LBRC record archives at the
Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science (LSUMNS).
The
LBRC compiles the official State List. The State List is available at the LOS
website. Photographs of some of the state’s accepted records can also be viewed
there. The LOS produces field checklists with the State List,
which are updated every few years.
The
LBRC periodically updates a Review List. As per the LBRC Bylaws, species generally
qualify for the Review List if they average four or fewer occurrences annually
averaged over the past ten-year period.
The Review List is evaluated annually.
Some species may currently occur in excess of the “4 per year-averaged
over a 10-year period,” but have not been removed from the list either because
of insufficient documentation submitted to date been or because there is a lag
time in receiving and reviewing documentation.
For general information about submitting bird records, see Instructions
for Reporting Louisiana Bird Observations at the LOS LBRC webpage.
The
LBRC requests documentation for all Review List species and any species new to
Louisiana. The LBRC has a standardized
reporting form. This form is set up to recover information that is necessary to
thoroughly document an observation; hard copy forms may be requested from the Secretary.
Observers may also download a template from
the LOS website. If you print your own
copy, please use archive quality-100% rag paper to submit your record. Observers may also submit reports
electronically. A hard copy will later be printed by the Secretary
(on 100% rag paper) and placed in the archives. If you are unfamiliar at
providing written documentation for a rarity or would like to hone your current
skills, Dittmann and Lasley (1992) provide a thorough discussion of how
to provide documentation for rarities.
Submission of additional
supporting documentation, including photographs, videotape, and tape recordings
is strongly encouraged. Original prints or slides are preferred; mail these to Donna Dittmann
(LBRC Secretary). The LBRC can scan and return your original images.
Duplicates may also be submitted. When submitting electronic images, please do not submit images that have been
enhanced, corrected, or otherwise changed from the original image. The
committee has the capability to do this when reviewing the images and would
like to evaluate the raw image. Submit electronic images to Paul Conover;
we can currently accept high quality files of any type: jpeg, gif, tiff, bmp.
Video ‘grabs’ may also be submitted.
Records submitted electronically can be seen at “View
Pending Reports” at the LOS website. This site allows a submitting
observer to view their submitted record online. If any changes are necessary
while the record remains at this site, contact Paul Conover
and he can make requested changes. Records
posted at this site also allow other observers to see which records have been
submitted (electronically). We hope that this will stimulate other observers of
a particular record to submit additional documentation to create as thorough a
file as possible for each record. Records will remain visible at this site only
until they are reviewed. Once reviewed, the report is removed from this
site and archived. Outcome of the review will be published in a report of the
LBRC in the Journal of Louisiana Ornithology. Records will be chosen for
review from Pending Records based on their completeness. For example, a
single person sight record may be selected for and be reviewed in a relatively
short amount of time because all information is present at the website. In
contrast, a record with multiple observers and all observers have not submitted
documentation, or a record that indicates there is photographic documentation
that has not also been submitted, may stay at the website for an extended
period awaiting submission of additional documentation. Some or all photos
originally submitted electronically of accepted records will be linked to that
species on the Documentary Photos page.
The LBRC will eventually add other photos to this site from the LBRC archives.