The Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) recently concluded evaluations of 10 records of the occurrence of rare birds in Illinois. IORC accepted nine of these records and did not accept one.
The records involved are summarized below. For each record, we indicate the species or form, with number of individuals in parentheses if greater than one, followed by date or date range, location, and county. The record number is indicated in parentheses, followed by, for accepted records, names of the documenters. If multiple documenters are listed, those understood by IORC to have been the original finders of the bird(s) are listed first and separated from the others by a semicolon. IORC thanks all the documenters, for accepted and unaccepted records alike, for their submissions. All documentation is maintained in the IORC archives so that there is a permanent record of all these observations. Documentation, regardless of the Committee’s decision, is a valuable part of the record of bird life in Illinois.
Records Accepted
- Broad-billed Hummingbird, 8 May 2020, Lerna, Coles County (2020-186; Eric Bollinger).
- Black Rail (1 to 3), 17-30 May 2022, Illinois Beach State Park, North Unit, Lake County (2022-049; Beau Schaefer; Scott Latimer, Jason Newton).
- Black Rail, 30 April to 1 May 2022, Killdeer Wetlands, Cook County (2022-050; Alex Haza; Henry Meade, Liam Pentangelo, Peter Tolzmann).
- Limpkin, 11-30 August 2022, Sanganois State Fish and Wildlife Area, Cass and Mason counties (2022-047; Mike Chumley; Colin Dobson, Jarod Hitchings, Forrest Stonedahl).
- Long-tailed Jaeger, 26-27 July 2022, Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge, Mason County (2022-051; Colin Dobson).
- Short-billed Gull, 5-6 February 2011, Horseshoe Lake State Park, Madison County (2011-043; Bill Rudden; Frank Holmes).
- White Ibis, 7-8 August 2022, Mermet Lake, Massac County (2022-052; Jeanne Stacey).
- White-faced Ibis, 23 August 2022, Boogerville, Wayne County (2022-053; C. Leroy Harrison; Ron Bradley).
- Painted Redstart, 21 August 2022, Lakewood Forest Preserve, Lake County (2022-048; Jeff Bilsky; Hazem Alkhan, Pam & Dion Carmona, Dan Hayes, Alex Haza, Edward Hicks, Ryan Jones, Sean Kennedy, Lisa Maier, Henry Meade, Ian Sarmiento, Andrea Tolzmann, Peter Tolzmann, Dan Williams, Geoffrey A. Williamson, Owen Woodhouse). First state record.
Records Not Accepted
- Eurasian Hobby, 15 January 2018, Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (2018-077).