IORC Update, 8 July 2022: Records Reviewed

By /

The Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) recently concluded evaluations of 29 records of the occurrence of rare birds in Illinois. IORC accepted 24 of these records and did not accept another five.

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

  • Ross’s Goose (blue morph), 6 March 2017, Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (2017-088; Dan Kassebaum).
  • Ross’s Goose (blue morph), 17 March 2018, Carlyle Lake, Clinton County (2018-079; Dan Kassebaum).
  • Common Nighthawk, 24 November 2021, East Fork Lake, Richland County (2021-108; C. Leroy Harrison).
  • Snowy Plover, 23-24 April 2022, Montrose Point in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, Cook County (2022-020; Henry Meade, Geoffrey A. Williamson).
  • Ruff, 25 April 2022, northwest of Champaign, Champaign County (2022-022; Tyler D. Funk).Parasitic Jaeger, 9 September 2020, Waukegan Beach, Lake County (2020-135; Cici Birnberg, Rob Birnberg, Gustavo Ustariz).
  • Neotropic Cormorant, 5 April 2022, East Fork Lake, Richland County (2022-019; Bob Shelby).
  • White Ibis (4), 4 August 2020, Big Lake, Brown County (2020-144; Colin Dobson).
  • White Ibis (1 to 3), 7-16 August 2020, Kaskaskia Island, Randolph County (2020-145; Josh Engel, Tommy Goodwin).
  • White-faced Ibis, 29-30 September 2020, Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area, Grundy County (2020-147; Kirk LaGory, Matt Misewicz, Al Stokie).
  • Swallow-tailed Kite, 13 August 2020, Butler Grove Township, Montgomery County (2020-137; Nancy Redman).
  • Swallow-tailed Kite, 29 August to 19 September 2020, east of Anna, Union County (2020-138; Ted Wolff).
  • Say’s Phoebe, 11 April 2020, Geneva, Kane County (2020-136; Scott Cohrs).
  • Townsend’s Solitaire, 2-3 May 2020, east of Pontiac, Livingston County (2020-139; Nichole Akre; Benjamin Murphy).
  • Townsend’s Solitaire, 16 October 2020, Saganashkee Slough, Cook County (2020-140; Michael McNamee).
  • Townsend’s Solitaire, 20 November 2020, Centennial Park in Park Ridge, Cook County (2020-141; Krzysztof Kurylowicz; Peter Weber).
  • Townsend’s Solitaire, 4 December 2020, Hampshire Forest Preserve, Kane County (2020-142; Brendon Lake).
  • Dark-eyed Junco (Pink-sided), 4-5 April 2022, Chicago, Cook County (2022-018; Scott Judd; Matthew Cvetas).
  • Hoary Redpoll, 6-8 March 2022, Evanston, Cook County (2022-015; Tamima Itani; Matthew Cvetas).
  • White-winged Crossbill (up to 15), 10-14 Mar 2022, Binnie Forest Preserve, Kane County (2022-016; Walt Lutz; Geoffrey A. Williamson).
  • Lesser Goldfinch, 5-16 March 2022, Sagawau Environmental Learning Center, east of Lemont, Cook County (2022-014; Leslie DeCourcey; Matthew Cvetas, David B. Johnson, Henry M. Meade, Craig Taylor, Dan Williams, Geoffrey A. Williamson).
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s), 22 May 2020, Illinois Beach State Park, Lake County (2020-148; Al Nichols).
  • Western Tanager, 8-12 May 2020, Hoopeston, Vermilion County (2020-143; Michael P. Ward).
  • Western Tanager, 12-17 May 2020, Downers Grove, DuPage County (2020-153; Robin Cronin).

Records Not Accepted

  • Barrow’s Goldeneye, 12-15 January 2022, Wilmington Island Park, Will County (2022-006).
  • Parasitic Jaeger, 7 September 2019, Illinois Beach State Park, North Unit, Lake County (2019-082).
  • White Ibis, 2 September 2020, Grand Tower, Jackson County (2020-146).
  • Cassin’s Vireo, 23 April 2022, Ewing Park, Bloomington, McLean County (2022-021).
  • Black-headed Grosbeak, 2 June 2019, Hastings Lake, Lake County (2019-086).

Scroll to Top