North American Birds - Inyo County

Subregional editors, Tom and Jo Heindel

View in pdf or Word 2003 (also available in a checklist format here)

Guidelines for Submitting Inyo County Sightings to North American Birds

The list of Inyo County Birds (below), in the new 2010 taxonomic order, is posted here in an effort to inform observers of the species found in Inyo County. Those casual or rare enough to require a description are underlined and those on the California Bird Records Committee Review List are underlined and bold.

Few species require lengthy descriptions, but the more rare the species or the more unexpected the species due to the date, location, or number seen, the more detailed and convincing the description needs to be. Minimally, we need date, location, distance between bird and birder, amount of time viewing the bird(s), whether through binoculars or a telescope, and a description of the plumage. Often it takes two to three sentences for a totally convincing write-up; occasionally, as many paragraphs might be necessary.

Numerous sightings of Inyo County birds, posted on the Internet without any descriptions, are not included in the Inyo County Seasonal Report to North American Birds or the county database. Other posts contained adequate descriptions and/or photographs and are included in the seasonal report and the database.

The seasons are Spring – 1 March to 31 May, Summer – 1 June to 31 July, Fall – 1 August to 30 November, Winter – 1 December to 28 February. We must have reports by the tenth day following the end of each season and the species need to be in taxonomic order to facilitate collating all the reports. Please send them to tjheindel@gmail.com.

We are providing this information so observers know what is expected in order to turn a personal sighting into a county record that will stand the test of time. We cannot send requests for more information, since we often have over fifty observers submitting reports; we ask that you send us all you have when you submit your sightings!

Thanks to all who have met and exceeded our requests in archiving a reliable database for Inyo County.

INYO COUNTY BIRD LIST 2010 TAXON (also available in a checklist format here)

Return to Top