The BirdLife Australia Rarities Committee (BARC) is responsible for appraising reports of rarities and maintaining a list of rare birds in Australia as well as its external territories and the surrounding seas.
2025 is BARC’s 50th anniversary
BARC began life as the Records Appraisal Committee of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ Union back in 1975. The very first case they assessed was a Snow Petrel reported from Victor Harbour SA in 1974. Since then, BARC has examined reports of more than a hundred different unusual species that have visited our shores and islands or have been seen plying Australian waters. These exotic birds range from Oriental Honey-Buzzards, Chinese Pond Herons and a Mugimaki Flycatcher, to Orange-fronted Fruit-Doves, Aleutian Terns and Cinnamon Bitterns (and many, many more). Together, they comprise more than 1,300 sightings, so far…
Over the years, numerous new species have been added to the Working List of Australian Birds, but only after they were accepted following appraisal by BARC. Some have turned out to be regular visitors since they were first recorded here, while other species have been seen here just once… so far…
One of BARC’s important roles is to weed out incorrect and unsubstantiated reports of rare birds, so that only confirmed records make it into the scientific literature. Scientific integrity is paramount.
Please direct any queries or feedback to birdata@birdlife.org.au.
Current list of birds BARC is reviewing
If members record any of the species listed below, they are encouraged to prepare a submission for assessment by BARC using the Unusual Record Report Form. This helps to ensure that records are documented for posteriority and become part of the collective knowledge base about Australian birds.
BirdLife Australia Rarities Committee Unusual Record Report Form
Nordmann’s Greenshank on Yirrganydji Country, Cairns, 2022. Photo by JJ Harrison/ CC BY-SA 3.0.
