Vagrant birds records from New Zealand and the Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand

The researchers involved in this project are members of the Birds New Zealand Records Appraisal Committee and the BNZ Checklist Committee – in that role, they assess more than 120 ‘Unusual Bird Reports’ each year.

These assessments are summarised in a biennial report on vagrant bird records from New Zealand, and these data feed into updates of the Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, produced biennially in alternate years to the RAC report.

Main collaborators: Birds New Zealand: Checklist Committee, and Records Appraisal Committee

Representative publications

• Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand

• Vagrant and extra-limital bird records accepted by the Birds New Zealand Records Appraisal Committee 2021–2022

Juvenile Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoo. Photo by Mark Lethlean, New Zealand Birds Online