​HRC description species (with effect from 1st January 2023)

Any record of the following species in the Highland recording area requires a formal description using this form.

​Bewick’s Swan
​Taiga Bean Goose
Tundra Bean Goose
Dark-bellied Brent Goose 
Egyptian Goose 
Snow Goose
European White-fronted Goose
American Wigeon
Green-winged Teal
Garganey (Females/imm only)
​Ring-necked Duck
Surf Scoter
Smew
Ruddy Duck 
White-billed Diver
Balearic Shearwater
Leach's Petrel (Inner Moray Firth only)
Continental Cormorant (ssp sinensis)
Bittern
Great White Egret
White Stork
Glossy Ibis 
Spoonbill
Great Crested Grebe (except Moray Firth records)
​Red-necked Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Honey Buzzard
Rough-legged Buzzard
Hobby
Ring-necked Parakeet 
Spotted Crake
Common Crane
Avocet
American Golden Plover
Little Ringed Plover
Temminck’s Stint
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Red-necked Phalarope
Grey Phalarope
Spotted Redshank

​Long-tailed Skua (juveniles and immatures)
Sabine’s Gull (east coast records only)
Kumlien's Gull
Mediterranean Gull (all immature plumages)
Ring-billed Gull
Roseate Tern
Black Tern (adults and immatures)
Turtle Dove
Little Owl
Nightjar
Wryneck
Shorelark
Scandinavian Rock Pipit (ssp. littoralis)
Richard’s Pipit
Olive-backed Pipit
Water Pipit
Yellow Wagtail (all races)
Reed Warbler
Blyth's Reed Warbler
Marsh Warbler
Icterine Warbler
Barred Warbler
Siberian Chiffchaff (ssp. tristis)
Pallas’s Warbler
Firecrest
Bluethroat 
Red-breasted Flycatcher
Bearded Tit
​Willow Tit
Golden Oriole
Red-backed Shrike
Chough
Rose-coloured Starling (juveniles only)
Common Rosefinch
Scottish Crossbill (SBRC species in Skye and the small isles)- All submissions are on hold while a further review on identification criteria by SBRC takes place.
Parrot Crossbill (SBRC species in Sutherland, Lochaber, Skye and Lochalsh)
Little Bunting