Chair’s introduction

This is the 66th annual report of the British Birds Rarities Committee. The seemingly inexorable increase in the number of species on the British List continues apace, with several records from past years appearing in this report, as well as a plethora of firsts from 2023. These are: Soft-plumaged Petrel Pterodroma mollis and Band-rumped Storm-petrel Hydrobates castro (in the case of the latter, the first record identified to species level), both from 2021; Stejneger’s Scoter Melanitta stejnegeri, from 2022; and Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus, Grey-headed Lapwing Vanellus cinereus, Western Olivaceous Warbler Iduna opaca and Canada Warbler Cardellina canadensis, all from 2023. This report also includes the first acceptable record of Red-headed Bunting Emberiza bruniceps, involving a reidentified bird from 2010, the reallocation of Britain’s only ‘Lesser Short-toed Lark’, from Portland, Dorset, in 1992 (Rogers et al. 1994), which is now accepted as Asian Short-toed/Mediterranean Short-toed/Turkestan Short-toed Lark Alaudala cheleensis/rufescens/heinei following the three-way split (Alström et al. 2020), and a new first record of Taiga Flycatcher Ficedula albicilla, from 1976.