This page provides a gateway into a database or inventory of submissions to the New York State Avian Records Committee (NYSARC) since our inception in 1977. It should be stressed from the outset that this not a database of all "reported occurrences" in New York State. In an ideal world, these should be one and the same but in reality there are many instances where adequate documentation of important sightings has not been submitted to us. We strongly encourage all observers to browse the individual species entries by following the links or downloading the PDF file and where possible help us to fill the obvious gaps. Think to yourself, what rare or uncommon birds have I seen over the years? Are they already represented in the database or not? There is no 'statute of limitations' on submission to NYSARC and we are happy to receive descriptions of birds from years gone by, especially if you can refer to some form of documentation (field notes, photos, sketches etc.) rather than rely on memory alone. As any student of psychology, or crime novels for that matter, can tell you, it is all too easy for memories to become "contaminated" by later sightings or images from books and magazines. Thus contemporaneous notes are an invaluable tool for accurately recalling past events.
  

NYSARC HISTORICAL DATABASE 1977-2022     UPDATED 7/16/24
The database currently lists over 3000 observer reports reviewed by NYSARC, from its inception in 1977 through 2022. To access the interactive species list, scroll down on this page and click on any species for which you'd like to see the list of reviewed reports. There is a popup chart for each species, with basic where/when/who/decision information, along with clickable links to the NYSARC reports and articles in The Kingbird that contain the discussions for the individual submissions.

DOWNLOADABLE FILES       UPDATED THRU 2022 - 7/17/24

The entire historical database is available for download in both pdf and csv formats. Links and terms of use appear below, following the interactive species list.

BRIEF NOTES ON THE FORMATTING OF INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES - See below

FEEDBACK PLEASE

We would like to hear from users of this database and other components of the NYSARC web site. Your feedback will help us arrange the information in such a way as to be most useful to birders and ornithologists alike. We very much want to hear from you if there are errors - spelling mistakes, dates, incorrect county assignments etc. - some of which may trace back to the original committee reports. One beauty of the Internet is that things can be readily corrected and updated. So please with your comments and corrections.

           - New York State Avian Records Committee

BRIEF NOTES ON FORMATTING OF INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES
 

Each database entry contains (i) the NYSARC reference number, (ii) the date(s) of the sighting, (iii) the county involved, (iv) the status ('accepted' or 'not accepted' by the review committee), (v) the issue of The Kingbird (KB) that contains the relevant NYSARC Annual Report, Special Report, or article with more details (plus a link to the online Report) and lastly, (vi) the names of the persons who contributed 'accepted' reports (we rarely include the names of contributors of reports that were not 'accepted' after review). The NYSARC number provides the least ambiguous way to refer to a given submission and should be used in any correspondence. When written or photographic materials are received, the NYSARC Secretary - currently Gary Chapin - assigns a unique identifier number (e.g. 1986-3-A) representing the year of observation (1986), an arbitrary number (3) reflecting the order of receipt and a single letter code (A) that is used to keep track of multiple submissions that pertain to the same bird or birds. The majority of entries represent species that are truly rare in New York State and the committee expects documentation of all occurrences (see Review List for details). In some cases, the sightings become frequent enough for us to drop the species from the official review list. Good examples are Sandhill Crane and Black Vulture, which have become sufficiently regular across much of the state that they no longer require NYSARC review although they may still require documentation at the local level. Other entries (e.g. Wilson's Phalarope) reflect species that are not as rare but are extremely irregular breeders. Lastly there are species that are occasionally recorded outside the usual seasons. Examples of this loosely defined category include wintering Neotropical migrants (e.g. Veery) or summering arctic breeders (e.g. Rough-legged Hawk).  
 

 
NYSARC HISTORICAL DATABASE - DOWNLOADABLE FILES   UPDATED THRU 2022 - 7/17/24

The entire historical database is available for download in both pdf and csv formats and may be used for non-commercial purposes.

            NYSARCthru2022updated2024_0717.pdf

            NYSARCthru2022updated2024_0717.csv 

 

Terms of Use:

The NYSARC Historical Database of reports is available to anyone for non-commercial use. We especially encourage use of these data for research, outreach, and education. We ask only that you provide a citation (see below) should some information gleaned from it appear in a publication, whether in print or online. Even if nothing is published, it would be of interest to NYSARC to know how this dataset is being used - please drop us a line at nysarc44@nybirds.org.

 

The NYSARC Historical Database is provided under a Creative Commons BY-NC license. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes, with appropriate attribution. Please contact NYSARC at  nysarc44@nybirds.org with any queries regarding commercial use of the database.

Suggested citation: NYSARC (New York State Avian Records Committee). 2022. NYSARC Historical Database. Available online at https://nybirds.org/NYSARC/NYSARCActions.html