​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 (eclipse males, juveniles and lone females 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

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
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 
Kumlien's Gull
Mediterranean Gull (all immature plumages)
Ring-billed Gull
Roseate Tern
Black Tern 
Turtle Dove
Little Owl
Nightjar
Wryneck
Shorelark
Scandinavian Rock Pipit (ssp. littoralis) (except coast from Tarbat Ness to Caithness)
Richard’s Pipit
Olive-backed Pipit
Water Pipit
Yellow Wagtail (all races)
Great Grey Shrike
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 (except adult plumaged birds)
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
Lapland Bunting