Basically, any records that you have are valuable and should be sent in. Including the following information can make them even more useful:

• Dated records are infinitely more useful.

• Be specific about locations: give grid references and use names given on current 1:50,000 O.S. maps rather than colloquial names.

• If possible, comment on sex, age, and state of plumage (e.g. non-breeding adult; first-winter male).

• Breeding records, particularly of scarcer species, are very valuable.

• Arrival and departure dates for the regular summer, winter, and passage migrants.

• Dated records of unseasonal migrants with supporting identification details.

• Counts of visible migration and hard weather movements with the time and duration of the count and the direction(s) of flight, and an indication of the size of migrating flocks.

• Dated records of all feral species and presumed escapes should be submitted with descriptions sufficient to eliminate similar exotics.

• Records of hybrids, which are particularly frequent in wildfowl, should include details to support the identification of parentage.

• Include data from special studies such as nest box schemes, wildfowl counts, BTO Atlas, surveys, and ringing.

• Records of any birds wearing coloured rings, wing-tags, or feather dye (but please note colours, positions, and letters/numbers) are particularly valuable.

Each year the Rarity Committees of the 4 counties consider which species require some form of confirmation when records are submitted – these are listed in the back of the Annual Report. The requirements for confirmation can change as species become commoner or rarer. In order to keep you better informed of changes to status, a list of species requiring confirmation can be downloaded as a PDF and this will be updated regularly.

Download list of Description Species in the checklist link opposite.

Not every description need be equally detailed, the amount of detail required being dependent on the status in the county of the species involved and/or the degree of difficulty in its identification. The golden rules are to record only what you actually see. Even if you are submitting a photo or video, you should include the following:

1. Submitter’s name and contact details

2. Species being claimed

3. Date first seen and last seen

4. Number of birds involved

5. Age/sex

6. Location (give grid ref or postcode if possible)

7. Finder (with email address)

8. Identifier (with email address)

9. Other observers

10. Optical Aids

11. Distance from bird

12. Are photographs, video, or sound recordings available and who from?

13. Observer experience with bird

14. Weather conditions

15. How certain are you?

• Take a description and, if possible, a photograph or video, and send it to your County Recorder straight away – do not wait until the end of the year and don’t assume someone else has already done it!

• Records of nationally rare species (code BBRC) will be assessed by the British Birds Rarities Committee, via your County Recorder (from whom special forms for submitting your description can be obtained – please enclose a SAE).

• Local rarities will be assessed by the relevant County Recorder and their Rarities Committee.

It goes without saying, that records of rare breeding birds are important to submit, to contribute to the full Avifauna of the West Midland Bird Club Area. The safest way of doing this, is through the BTO Birdtrack Website All records of rare breeding birds are filtered out of the public viewing, relevant parts of the website.

Another appropriate way of submitting information, is direct to your relevant county recorders. Contact information can be found at the top of this page.

Thank you for reading this information, tell your fellow Birders about the details and enjoy your Birding!