Dear Ontbirds subscribers,
The annual meeting of the Ontario Bird Records Committee (OBRC) was held on 7 April 2019. At this meeting, the following changes were made (effective 1 January 2019): 1. Five new species were added to the Ontario list, bringing the total Ontario checklist to 501 species. The new additions include Costa’s Hummingbird (one individual banded in Niagara Falls, Niagara; present 3 or 4 Oct – 2 December 2017), Reddish Egret (Oliphant, Bruce), Great Kiskadee (Rondeau Provincial Park, Chatham-Kent), Calliope Hummingbird (Goderich, Huron) and White-crowned Pigeon (Pembroke, Renfrew). Each of these five species was also new to the South Review Zone, and thus added to the South Review List. 2. Eurasian Collared-Dove has been removed from the South Review List and the Central Review List, effective 1 January 2019. 3. White-winged Dove has been removed from the South Review List and the Central Review List, effective 1 January 2019. This year’s OBRC meeting minutes will be available shortly on the OFO website, as well as the updated Bylaws, here: http://ofo.ca/site/Obrc Past annual reports are available online at: http://ofo.ca/site/page/view/obrc.annualreports At this meeting the 3 year terms as voting OBRC members for Paul Pratt and myself ended. The OBRC has elected Ken Burrell and Reuven Martin to 3 year terms going forward. The committee would like to thank all OFO members who took the time to submit nominations. Amanda Guercio was elected to the chairperson role, while the remaining voting members are Barbara Charlton, Bill Lamond, Blake Mann and Donald Sutherland. Mark Peck will continue as the non-voting Royal Ontario Museum Liaison. Mike Burrell has decided to step down from his role as Secretary after many years serving in this position. Mike has volunteered countless hundreds of hours in this role, and the OBRC would like to extend him a heartfelt thank you for his hard work. Mike will stay on with the OBRC as he was elected in the new role of Archivist. The duties of the Archivist include some of the duties previously completed by the Secretary, and include: -Furnish anyone, upon request, with all evidence, including Committee comments, concerning any record that has received a final Committee decision; -Maintain digital database listing all records and their details; -Maintain a copy of this database on eBird; -Maintain digital archive of all records and their documentation; -Provide access to digital archive for anyone requesting details; Update/maintain species lists and review lists (section 6.2 and 7 of these bylaws); and, -Ensure any changes to these lists are reflected on OFO website. The OBRC has elected Daniel Riley as the new Secretary, while Barbara Charlton was re-elected to serve as Assistant to the Secretary. I would also like to take this opportunity to remind the Ontario birding community to submit your documentation of birds on the OBRC Review Lists as soon as possible – this facilitates timely voting by the committee and helps ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible. It also helps ensure your memory is fresh when writing the reports. Please don't assume others have documented a bird - the more reports we have on file, the more complete the record will be now and in the future. An online form is available at http://ofo.ca/site/Obrcreport but the OBRC accepts submissions in any form (send them to the OBRC secretary (obrcsecretary at gmail.com). Guidelines for submitting reports are available at http://ofo.ca/site/page/view/obrc.guidelines If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me or any of the other OBRC members. Josh Vandermeulen 2018 OBRC Chair joshvandermeulen at live.ca _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
