eWestern Birds
The Quarterly Journal of Western Field Ornithologists
First Report of the Hawaii Bird Records Committee
Eric A. VanderWerf, Reginald E. David, Peter Donaldson, Richard May, H. Douglas Pratt, Peter Pyle, and Lance Tanino
ABSTRACT: The Hawaii Bird Records Committee (HBRC) was formed in 2014 to provide a formal venue for reviewing bird reports in the Hawaiian Islands and to maintain and periodically update the checklist of birds of the Hawaiian Islands. This is the first report of the HBRC. From 2014 to 2016, the HBRC reviewed 46 reports involving 33 species, including 20 species not recorded previously in the Hawaiian Islands, nine species reported previously that were based only on visual documentation at the time, one re-evaluation of a species pair reported previously, two introduced species whose establishment was questioned, and one species previously regarded as hypothetical. The HBRC accepted 17 new species, did not accept three new species, and did not accept five species that previously had been accepted on other checklists of Hawaiian Island birds. The Hawaiian Islands bird checklist includes 338 species accepted through 2016..