Virginia Avian Records Committee Review List
The lists below follow The American Ornithologists' Union's Check-list of North American Birds
for species-level taxonomy and taxonomic order. The Committee's treatment of subspecies usually follows Peter Pyle's Identification Guide to
North American Passerines (1997) and similar authoritative sources, most published in the late twentieth century. See our Bibliography for more information on these references and on resources for Virginia ornithology.
An at-a-glance spreadsheet showing all
Review Species, along with their Review Status in each
physiographic area, is available by clicking here. Harlequin Ducks above courtesy of, and copyright 2004, Brian L. Sullivan.
The following species,
field-identifiable superspecies/subspecies, and color morphs have already been
documented in the Commonwealth of Virginia and are reviewable
wherever they occur in Virginia or its waters (click this link to see a map of the state). Virginia waters are defined as
"that area bounded on the north by
latitude 38 degrees 02' 00", on the south by latitude 36 degrees 33' 05", and on the
east by all points 200 nautical miles from the nearest point on the Virginia
coastline." The state has been traditionally divided into three basic physiographic provinces (click this link to see a map), and the current Review
List is based on that system, with many modifications made. To view a comparative list of Review Species in Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Delaware, and West Virginia, click here. ****** Black-bellied Whistling-Duck West Indian Whistling-Duck Fulvous Whistling-Duck Brant (any taxon other than hrota) Barnacle Goose Ross's Goose (blue morph) Eurasian Green-winged Teal(Anas c. crecca) White-cheeked Pintail Cinnamon Teal Tufted Duck Barrow's Goldeneye Pacific Loon Western Grebe Clark's Grebe Yellow-nosed Albatross Black-browed Albatross Black-capped Petrel Herald Petrel Fea's Petrel Short-tailed Shearwater White-faced Storm-Petrel Band-rumped Storm-Petrel White-tailed Tropicbird Brown Booby Magnificent Frigatebird Neotropic Cormorant Little Egret Reddish Egret White-faced Ibis Wood Stork Greater Flamingo White-tailed Kite Western Marsh Harrier Broad-winged Hawk (dark
morph) Red-tailed Hawk (western taxa) Ferruginous Hawk Gyrfalcon Yellow Rail Paint-billed Crake Purple Gallinule Limpkin Snowy Plover Mountain Plover Whimbrel (taxa other than hudsonicus) Eskimo Curlew Long-billed Curlew Bar-tailed Godwit Red-necked Stint Ruff Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Eurasian Woodcock South Polar Skua Black-tailed Gull Mew Gull California Gull Thayer's Gull Yellow-legged Gull Sabine's Gull Elegant Tern Arctic Tern Roseate Tern Sooty Tern White-winged Tern Thick-billed Murre Common Murre Black Guillemot White-winged Dove Common Ground-Dove Groove-billed Ani Snowy Owl Burrowing Owl Allen's Hummingbird Black-chinned Hummingbird Magnificent Hummingbird Lewis's Woodpecker Red-cockaded Woodpecker Say's Phoebe Vermilion Flycatcher Ash-throated Flycatcher Gray Kingbird Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Fork-tailed Flycatcher Western Wood-Pewee Pacific-slope/Cordilleran Flycatcher Cave Swallow Black-billed Magpie Boreal Chickadee Rock Wren Bewick's Wren Northern Wheatear Mountain Bluebird Varied Thrush Sage Thrasher Sprague's Pipit Bohemian Waxwing Northern Shrike Black-whiskered Vireo Bell's Vireo Bachman's Warbler Audubon's Warbler (Dendroica
coronata auduboni) Black-throated Gray Warbler Townsend's Warbler Kirtland's Warbler MacGillivray's Warbler Western Tanager Black-headed Grosbeak Lazuli Bunting Green-tailed Towhee Spotted Towhee Black-throated Sparrow Lark Bunting Harris's Sparrow Bachman's Sparrow Henslow's Sparrow Gambel's White-crowned
Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) Dark-eyed Junco (any taxa
other than of the Slate-colored group) Chestnut-collared Longspur Shiny Cowbird Bullock's Oriole Hoary Redpoll European Goldfinch (3) Pine Grosbeak White-winged Crossbill The remaining species below
are reviewable only in certain parts of the state (which are indicated by
area). To see more precisely the boundaries of these areas, just click on the underlined title of each area,
and you'll see a map that shows these boundaries. The areas in which these species below are maintained as
Review Species are those in which they are rare, little-known, requiring verification, or unknown. Ruffed Grouse Common Raven Loggerhead Shrike Ruddy Turnstone Sanderling White-rumped Sandpiper Baird's Sandpiper Stilt Sandpiper Mississippi Kite Piedmont and Mountains & Valleys Greater White-fronted Goose Surf Scoter White-winged Scoter Red-throated Loon Tricolored Heron Snowy Egret White Ibis Willet Long-billed Dowitcher Iceland Gull (except in Prince William Co.) Glaucous Gull (except in Prince William Co.) Royal Tern Least Tern Western Kingbird Coastal Plain and Piedmont south of Interstate 64 Black-capped Chickadee Mountains & Valleys and Piedmont south of Interstate 64 Glossy Ibis American Golden-Plover Laughing Gull Great Black-backed Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull All of the state except Northampton County Swainson's Hawk Sandhill Crane Eurasian Collared-Dove Anhinga Swallow-tailed Kite Painted Bunting Coastal Plain only
Piedmont only
Mountains & Valleys only
Northern Fulmar
Cory's Shearwater
Greater Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
Audubon's Shearwater
Leach's Storm-Petrel
Great Skua
Long-tailed Jaeger
Bridled Tern
Dovekie
Atlantic Puffin
* the 30-fathom isobath
is defined as the place where the ocean depth drops to about 180 feet; this appears on bathymetric-topographic ocean charts as a contour,
just like the lines on terrestrial topographic charts.
Cackling Goose
Ross's Goose
King Eider
Common Eider
Harlequin Duck
Eared Grebe (except at South Holston Reservoir)
Sooty Shearwater
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Black Rail
Wilson's Plover
Piping Plover
American Avocet
Black-necked Stilt
American Oystercatcher
Whimbrel
Hudsonian Godwit
Marbled Godwit
Red Knot
Purple Sandpiper
Curlew Sandpiper
Red Phalarope
Red-necked Phalarope
Parasitic Jaeger
Pomarine Jaeger
Little Gull
Black-headed Gull
Franklin's Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Sandwich Tern
Gull-billed Tern
Black Skimmer
Razorbill
Bicknell's Thrush
Seaside Sparrow
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Ipswich Sparrow
Le Conte's Sparrow
All of the state west of, or
upstream from, the middle reaches of tidal rivers*
Brant
Eurasian Wigeon
Black Scoter
Northern Gannet
Great Cormorant
Brown Pelican
American White Pelican
Clapper Rail
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Wilson's Phalarope
Boat-tailed Grackle
Yellow-headed Blackbird
* for instance, upstream from the Chickahominy River mouth along the James River, from West Point along the York River, from Tappahannock along the Rappahannock River, and from the Route 301 bridge along the Potomac River.
******
Any species or form that does
not appear on the lists above or on the Official State List is by default a Review Species (unless,
of course, it's a zoo bird or pet that has escaped!). The Committee is also interested in
documentation of subspecies, to the extent this is possible, and even on
"types" of birds, such as the various types of Red Crossbill, currently
diagnosable only by spectrographic analysis of calls. The Committee will gladly archive and acknowledge such
material, even if it is not reviewable at this time.
In the interest of
completeness, the Committee also accepts and archives documentation of birds
believed to be escapees (or intentional introductions) from captivity. In particular, the Committee requests
documentation of occurrences of Monk Parakeet (particularly breeding evidence)
in the state in order to determine the extent to which this species has become
established in Virginia.
Birds driven shoreward or
ashore by hurricanes present a particular problem for review. The Committee
realizes the special burden that hurricanes pose for observers wishing to
submit documentation on such birds in accord with this Review List. Nevertheless, the Committee would very
much appreciate any and all documentation of such birds as per the categories
established herein.
Species or forms seen outside
normal periods of occurrence are also candidates for
review by the Committee. Please
inquire about such cases with the Secretary.
This page is updated regularly by the Chairperson and Secretary,
as Committee Members redefine, by semi-annual balloting, the contents of the Review List. As such, it is always "under
construction," and we welcome your input on the Review List and the website in general.