[reccom] Propose Review List Addition

[Kristin Purdy]

Gents,

Please consider this message a formal proposal to add the Yellow-billed 
Cuckoo to the Review Species list. I believe the cuckoo qualifies as a 
review species under bylaws item V. B. 1. a.:

B.  Review List

1.  The Review List will be updated from time to time by the Committee.

a.  In general, the Review List will consist of species that have occurred 
within Utah on average two or fewer times per year in each of the ten years 
immediately preceding revision of the Review List.



I'm aware of just a handful of reports of Yellow-billed Cuckoos in the state 
in the last eight years or so, the time I've lived in Utah. While it's 
possible that the species occurs in under-covered areas in central-south 
Utah, we have little information to know if that's true.

E-bird produced more reports. I queried the years 1999-2009 and came up with 
eight reports, several of which I was aware of.

I also reviewed the data available on the BBS website and did not find one 
report of the species in Utah in all the data compiled from 1966-2007. While 
roadside surveys might not reflect the true status of a species likely to be 
found in riparian stands of cottonwoods and willows, I believe the dearth of 
reports is significant.

A survey effort in the DWR's Northern Region in 2004 (I think) did not 
elicit one response to recorded playbacks in likely habitats along rivers 
and wooded inlet ends of reservoirs in the region.

I think we need to take the lack of reports and data about this bird at face 
value and reflect its status, which is likely declining in Utah as in many 
other places in the U.S., on the review species list.

Kris