dantheman
Bah humbug
Aren't they more similar in numbers though? Only an order of magnitude difference (of specifically id'ed birds, loads non-specific, either before criteria or id unable to be made), and either could conceivably turn up depending on circumstances.So my example of Subalpine Warbler, if you needed it but you'd seen one that wasn't specifically ID'd, you'd tick it on the basis that one was commoner than the other?
The Soft-plumaged Petrels may be a better comparison, what do people do with them?
Whereas there have been 3 (known) Taiga Fly in the last 50 years as opposed to thousands of RBFly (c100 per year).
Ocean hopping seabirds (from the Pacific) do occur but they are rare. Unless there is a good known mechanism for mixing ... it's a bit different from vagrancy within an ocean (eg Royal Tern etc where more care should be taken?)
So ... you can't tick either E or W Subalp (unless you want to be luddite and stick with Subalpine as a default species ;-) ), but you could tick RB Fly, yes generally, imo, even if you hadn't ruled out Taiga in the circumstances. Each to their own though. With regard to committees ... they have to be discerning, but a degree of pragmatism has to exist there too. It wouldn't do for all RB Fly records from the past to be relegated to flycatcher sp. ... ?