UK400 British list (1 Viewer)

I was having a look at UK400's British list today and saw several species not on the BOU list. I found the following which particularly caught the eye:

American least bittern, Chinese pond heron, falcated duck, white headed duck, falcated duck, black vulture, red shouldered hawk, booted eagle, and middle spotted woodpecker, all of which I had not heard of as being reported in the UK before.

Does UK400 have a different classification system? When and where were these birds seen? Why does BOU not include them?

Greg

They certainly have a different classification system. Some like White-headed and Falcated Duck, and probably Booted Eagle I imagine are wild and should be on the list, but it's probably reasonable to see the BOU and UK400 lists as two extremes...one likely over cautious, the other not cautious enough. The BOU list is the official one though. UK400 is generally followed more by some twitchers/listers (obviously temptation being that if you're making a list, you'd choose the one with more things that you can put on it)

I'm not going to go into who keeps/makes decisions on the UK400 list or we'll end up with pages of people rabbiting on about how they don't like/agree with him and slagging people off online is all a bit boring/pointless when the person isn't even here

In addition the UK400 list covers Ireland (both the Republic and Northern) and the Isle of Man, all excluded from the British List governed by the BOU.

I think the BOU list, the official list, should be the only list. I dont always believe in officialdom but at least its the same yardstick others will use.

The BOU list is more science-based, and seen as more conservative. The UK400 list is run by twitchers for twitchers, and so has a bias for allowing more tickable birds. Most of the birds you list there would be generally considered escapes from captivity by the BOU, as they err on the side of caution.

There probably are cases where the UK400 are right that some of them are genuinely wild birds, but I'd rather go with the BOU which requires more proof on their decisions. Unless people are playing the twitching game in the UK400 club (and fair play, if that's the rules they're playing by) then I think I'm safe in saying nearly everyone goes with the BOU.