The California Bird Records Committee held its annual meeting virtually on 13-14 January 2023, and some news from that meeting follows.
Committee Membership The terms of Debbie House, Guy McCaskie, and Ryan Terrill expired. Kimball Garrett, Marky Mutchler, and Peter Pyle were elected through 2025. Justyn Stahl was re-elected as Chair. Chris Howard was elected Vice-Chair. Tom Benson was re-elected as Secretary. Review list: Slaty-backed Gull and Great Crested Flycatcher were removed from the review list. No species were added.

Records: The committee discussed an accepted record of Stonechat (2005-005) from San Clemente Island, Los Angeles County 20-21 Oct 1995 in light of the AOS decision to split the taxon into different species. The committee voted to accept this bird as Asian Stonechat ( Saxicola maurus) . It should be noted that AOS taxonomy differs from Clements/eBird taxonomy; in the latter, Amur Stonechat ( S. stejnegeri ) and Siberian Stonechat ( S. maurus ) are treated as separate species, while the former treats these two taxa as subspecies ( S. m. stejnegeri and S. m. maurus ) of Asian Stonechat. If the AOS ever splits Asian Stonechat, the CBRC will revisit the identification of this individual. As a result, Stonechat is changed to Asian Stonechat on the California list (the website already reflects this).
The committee voted to add Yellow Grosbeak to the Supplemental List based on the record from Keough Hot Springs, Inyo County 31 Jul-2 Aug 2006. While current committee members agreed with the decision to not accept this record due to questionable natural occurrence, all of them also believed that a natural vagrant could not be ruled out. Furthermore, the addition of Yellow Grosbeak is consistent with the treatment of other species on theSupplemental List (e.g., Blue Mockingbird and Gray Thrasher).
Potential first state records Reports of Small-billed Elaenia, Wood Warbler, and Willow Warbler will circulate through the committee in early 2023. Reports of Eastern Towhee in Jacumba, San Diego County and Terwer Valley, Del Norte County were not accepted by the CBRC; details will be published in upcoming annual reports.
Annual reports: The 47 th report (2021 records) is currently being written and is likely to be published in Western Birds in the latter half of 2023 .
Please visit the CBRC website for details about the committee, committee decisions, specific records, the California state list, review list, and watch list. The website will be updated in early February to reflect changes from this year's meeting. https://www.californiabirds.org/

Kimball Garrett
Juniper Hills, CA