At its 14 January 2023 annual meeting, the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) removed Evening Grosbeak from the Review List.
The Review List consists of all bird forms for which IORC reviews all records (possibly excepting records from specified areas for some forms). It includes all species of Casual, Accidental, or Accidental (provisional) status; first state nesting records for a species; as well as such other forms as IORC decides upon.
In February 2020, IORC assessed the status of all species on the Illinois State List of Birds and made adjustments as appropriate. As a consequence of that review, the status of Evening Grosbeak moved from Regular (at least eight records in the past ten years) to Casual (at least six records in the state and three to seven records in the past ten years) on the basis of fewer than eight Evening Grosbeak records over the prior 10 year period. Then, of course, came the winter of 2020-21, during which Illinois was awash in Evening Grosbeaks. During the winter of 2021-22, there were only a few records of the species, but during the current 2022-23 winter, many Evening Grosbeaks again moved into our state. With regular occurrence once again established for Evening Grosbeak, IORC removed the species from the Review List.