Submit a Species Description

Reporting a description species

If you are fortunate enough to see a bird that is considered rare in Essex then please click one of the links below. You can use either the on-line form or download a Word.doc that you should then email to the County Recorder at ebwsrecords@gmail.com, who will forward it to the EBwS Identifications Panel for their consideration.  Rare species in Essex are identified as “Description (EBSIP)” on the Essex Bird List that can be seen by clicking here. 

If you are particularly fortunate and you see a nationally rare bird then please submit a description form to the BBRC (British Bird Records Committee) and also forward a copy to the County Recorder.  National rarities are identified as “Description (BBRC)” on the Essex Bird List and the BBRC descriptions form can be accessed by clicking this link.

Why this is important

As explained on the Bird Recording in Essex page, your records are used for a range of important bird conservation and environmental planning purposes.  Therefore, it is really important that the data that we share with others is accurate and of good quality. This is especially true with the rarer species which, by definition, are far fewer and therefore each individual record is of greater significance that it would be for the more common species, so it’s not just a question of correctly identifying the species, but also of being sure of the number of individuals.

We therefore have systems in place that help us to have confidence in what we are reporting, which is why we request that you share with us any supporting evidence that you have, such as a description of what you’ve seen along with a supporting photograph, although we recognise that it is not always possible to get a photo. All supporting evidence is then forwarded to the Identifications Panel for their review. Only once it has been reviewed by the panel can the record be included in the Essex Bird Report which is published annually by EBwS.

One of the challenges that we sometimes have is determining how many individual birds there are when multiple records have been submitted by a number of different people from different sites on different days. For example, was it just one Red-necked Grebe that was hopping around between Abberton, Old Hall, Mersea and Tollesbury or were there 4 birds in the county at the same time?  Submitting your records and descriptions can really help the ID Panel to answer that question. 

A standard review process such as this is common practice for every county bird club/society in the country, as it is also for the BBRC and other county natural history groups.

Description Species