Rare breeding birds

22 February 2010 | Marek Walford

With the breeding season fast approaching I thought it was timely to post the policy on reporting rare breeding species. The BTO have a policy relating to rare or sensitive species which has prompted a discussion between the Berkshire Atlas Group, Berkshire Records Committee and the Rare Breeding Birds Panel as to how the Berkshire Atlas Group should deal with rare breeding birds.

The recommendations put forward have given me an opportunity to review my policy. The following is a list of species for which records during the breeding season (and in some cases during the winter) will not be made public on berksbirds. Please don't ask me to reveal the breeding sites of any of these species.

Some rare breeding species are not included here. For instance, the vast majority of Hobby sightings will be of birds hunting over gravel pits. This is fine, but sightings at nest sites should not be published. To keep things simple it's best not to make public the location of any nest site of any species. You can still submit such records but please tick the "Confidential" tickbox. I appreciate that the inclusion of some of the species on this list is debatable, with sites being well known, records published in reports etc. but I hope it's a sensible compromise.

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