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What is Illinois Bird Records?
Illinois Bird Records is a digital archive of documented rare-bird occurrences in Illinois, maintained by the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC). It is a records and documentation resource rather than a general field guide or birding news site: the focus is on verified sightings, committee review, and long-term historical data.
The archive spans records from the 1800s to the present, with the earliest listed year being 1857. It includes accepted records, submitted records, and the committee's review decisions, along with associated reports and media. You can browse records with search and filter tools, and you can submit your own sighting if it involves a species on the Illinois Review List.
Who it is for
- Illinois birders who want to check whether a rare species has been recorded locally, and when.
- County listers and researchers comparing historical occurrence patterns across counties and decades.
- Photographers and field observers preparing documentation for a rare-bird report.
- Committee reviewers and regional experts who need the underlying archive and voting history.
What you can do on the site
- Browse rare-bird records by species, date, county, or record number.
- View examples such as a Black-throated Sparrow photographed in Cook County in 1980 or a Boreal Owl in Winnebago County in 2007.
- Submit a sighting for review when the species appears on the Review List.
- Read about the IORC, which was founded in 1985 and documents rare occurrences.
- Access archived journal content, including the Illinois Birds and Birding journal and The Meadowlark.
A practical next step
If you have seen a rare bird in Illinois, first check the current Review List, then gather your field notes, photos, and dates before submitting. If you are researching a species, start with the record search and note the county and year of each accepted record; that pattern often tells you more than a single sighting.
For the archive itself, see Illinois Bird Records.
How do I submit a rare bird sighting to the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee?
Use the Report Your Sighting section of Illinois Bird Records, which routes documentation to the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC). The key step is confirming that your species appears on the Review List of Illinois Birds before you submit; if it does not, the committee is not the right destination for the record.
What to prepare before submitting
The committee evaluates written documentation, so build a description that stands on its own:
- Species and date — exact date and, if possible, time of the observation.
- Location — county plus a specific site description.
- Field marks — size, shape, plumage, bill, behavior, and how the bird differed from similar species.
- Comparison species — explain why it was not a common look-alike; this is often the deciding factor.
- Conditions — optics used, distance, light, duration of view.
- Media — photographs, audio, or video if you have them.
- Observer details — your name and contact information, plus names of other observers.
How the review works
IORC is a volunteer group of regional experts, founded in 1985, that documents rare bird occurrences in Illinois going back to 1857. Submissions are reviewed by committee members, and decisions are issued as part of the record archive. Accepted records become permanent entries in the database, so a careful write-up has value beyond your own checklist.
Practical tips
Write your description from your own field notes as soon as possible, before memory blends with later photos or other birders' accounts. If you photographed the bird, submit the images but still include written notes. If you are unsure whether a species is reviewable, check the Review List first rather than sending a marginal report.
Where to go next
Start at Illinois Bird Records and open the Report Your Sighting page to submit. To see how accepted records are formatted and what level of detail survives review, browse the existing rare bird records, such as the Black-throated Sparrow (1980-010) from Cook County or the Boreal Owl (1997-002) from Winnebago County. For context on Illinois bird occurrence and seasonal patterns, the archived Meadowlark and Illinois Birds and Birding journals on the same site are useful background reading.
What species are on the Illinois Review List that require documentation?
The site doesn't publish the full Review List in the material available; it points you to it. The Review List is the set of species for which the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee expects documentation before a sighting is accepted into the archive. If you've seen one of those species, you submit your report for review.
Illinois Bird Records describes itself as a repository of data about birds in Illinois, past, present, and future. The committee behind it has reviewed roughly 4,000 records, with more than 2,500 accepted, and records reach back to 1857. The archive is searchable with a filter feature, so the most reliable way to see which species are treated as review species is to browse the records and note which species appear with committee record numbers and voting decisions.
Examples of species with accepted records shown on the site:
- Black-throated Sparrow — record 1980-010, photographed in Cook County, 10 Jan. 1980
- Boreal Owl — record 1997-002, photographed in Winnebago County, 9 Feb. 2007
- Band-tailed Pigeon — record 1996-060, photographed in Sangamon County, 28 Dec. 1996
These are the kind of rare occurrences the committee documents, not a complete list of every review species.
Next step: open the records browser on Illinois Bird Records and filter by species or county. If your sighting matches a species in the archive, check the Review List page linked from the "Report Your Sighting" section, then submit your documentation.
Decision criterion: report a sighting when the species appears on the Review List, or when it's a rare or out-of-season occurrence for Illinois. For common backyard birds, no committee submission is needed.
How can I search the Illinois Bird Records database for historical rare bird reports?
Use the Browse Records search on Illinois Bird Records to filter the archive of accepted and reviewed rare-bird reports from 1857 onward. The site describes the records as searchable by an "intuitive search and filter feature," and each entry carries a record number, species, date, county and often a photograph. Records are tied to the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC), founded in 1985.
A practical search sequence
- Start with the species name. If you want every Illinois report of a rarity such as Boreal Owl, filter by that species rather than scanning chronologically.
- Narrow by date or county. County filters help when you're checking whether a bird was recorded near you; date filters help for a specific season or year.
- Use the record number for precision. Entries like Black-throated Sparrow (1980-010) or Boreal Owl (1997-002) have unique IDs, so citing the number makes it easy to find the exact report again or reference it in your own notes.
- Open the individual record for documentation. The archive includes reports, media and committee voting decisions, so you can see what evidence was accepted and why.
What you'll find — and what you won't
| You can search | You generally won't find |
|---|---|
| Accepted rare-bird records back to 1857 | Common backyard species |
| Date, county, species and record number | Real-time rarity alerts |
| Photos and committee decisions | Full historical journals in the same search |
The journals are separate: Illinois Birds and Birding (1985–1991) and Meadowlark (1992–2026) have their own archive pages. If your target species is on the IORC Review List, the same site also explains how to submit your own sighting for review.
A concrete scenario
Suppose you're writing a county avifauna account for Winnebago County and want to know whether Boreal Owl has been documented there. Filter the records by species and county; the site's own example shows a Boreal Owl (1997-002) photographed by Ginny Schmidt on 9 Feb. 2007 in Winnebago County. From there, open the record to see the documentation and the committee's decision, then check Meadowlark for the seasonal field notes covering that winter.
Next step: browse the records once with no filters to see the full date range and record format, then repeat with a species filter so you know which fields are most reliable for your purpose.
What is the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee and how does it review records?
The Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) is a volunteer group of regional birding experts founded in 1985, according to Illinois Bird Records. Its purpose is to document and maintain details on rare bird occurrences in Illinois, with records reaching back to 1857—the earliest year in the archive. In practical terms, it acts as the state's review body for reports of species on the Illinois Review List, deciding which sightings become accepted records.
How the review process works
Based on the site's description, the workflow is:
- A birder who sees a Review List species submits documentation ("Report Your Sighting").
- The committee reviews that documentation and issues a decision.
- Accepted records join the archive; the site notes over 2,500 accepted records out of roughly 4,000 total reviewed.
The database also lets you view reports, media, and voting decisions issued over the years, so you can see not just outcomes but the basis for them.
What this means for different users
- Birders with a rare sighting: The key step is checking the Review List first, then submitting thorough documentation. Photos, field notes and circumstances all matter to a volunteer committee evaluating a claim.
- Researchers and listers: The archive is a citable historical dataset. Example entries cited on the site include a Black-throated Sparrow photographed in Cook County in 1980 and a Boreal Owl in Winnebago County in 2007.
- Casual readers: The records and archived journals offer a sense of how Illinois' avifauna has been tracked over more than a century.
A useful next step
If you have a sighting to report, confirm the species is on the Review List before submitting—records for common species generally don't need committee review. If you're researching, browse the records database and compare an accepted report's documentation with the committee's voting notes to understand what standard of evidence tends to succeed.
Where can I read archived issues of the Illinois Birds and Birding and Meadowlark journals?
You can read archived issues of both journals through Illinois Bird Records, which hosts an archive section for each publication.
- Illinois Birds and Birding: Published by the Illinois Audubon Society and compiled by Vern Kleen, it ran from January 1985 to December 1991, covering the 1984 Summer through 1991 Spring seasons. The site provides a link to browse these archives.
- The Meadowlark: The quarterly magazine of the Illinois Ornithological Society, spanning 1992 to 2026, with field notes, seasonal highlights, technical papers, photos, drawings and essays. It covered the 1991 Summer through 2024–2025 Winter seasons, and the site links to its archives.
Start at Illinois Bird Records and look for the "Archives" sections under each journal listing. If you need a specific season or article, note the season and year first; the archives are organized by publication and date range, so that detail will get you to the right issue faster.
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