The California Bird Records Committee has accepted the record of a bean-goose
present 9 November 2010 to 8 January 2011 at Unit 1 of the Salton Sea National
Wildlife Refuge, Imperial County. The Committee endorsed the record as
pertaining to "Taiga/Tundra Bean-Goose (Anser fabalis/serrirostris)" and that
species-pair will be added to the California state bird list. Most Committee
members felt that the bird was more likely a Taiga Bean-Goose, and three members
voted to accept it as belonging to that species. Taiga/Tundra Bean-Goose is
added to the list between Fulvous Whistling-Duck and Greater White-fronted
Goose, and is also added to the review list. Research on variation and
species-limits in this complex is ongoing, and it is possible that in the future
the Unit 1 bird will be reassessed and accepted as one species of the other; it
is also possible, of course, that the AOU committee decision to split these two
species will eventually be reversed, in which case the bird would appear on the
state list as Bean Goose (Anser fabalis).

Potential first state records of Common Crane (Grus grus), Northern Gannet
(Morus bassanus), and Gray Hawk (Buteo plagiatus) are currently under review.

Kimball L. Garrett
Ornithology Collections Manager
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007 USA
213-763-3368
kgarrett@...
http://www.nhm.org/site/research-collections/ornithology