Operational Guidelines

Malaysian Nature Society- Bird Conservation Council Records Committee (MNS-BCC RC)

Operational Guidelines[1]

A Brief History of the MNS-BCC Records Committee

With the formation of the Malaysian Nature Society Bird Conservation Council in 1995, a Records Committee was established in order to provide a vetting procedure for rarities and species new to the Malaysian list. Official submissions in the form of written notes were accepted. There were no official guidelines or criteria for accepting or rejecting a record. The Committee met once every two months to review new sightings, which were officially submitted or gleaned from other published sources, such as Forktail and the OBC Bulletin. There were initially three members in the Committee: Dr. Geoffrey W.H. Davison (Chairman), Allen Jeyarajasingam, and Dennis Yong Ghong Chong.

            When Dr. Geoffrey Davison left for Sabah in June 1998, Allen Jeyarajasingam took over as Chairman. A set of guidelines and criteria for voting was drawn up, based on that of the Singapore Rarities Committee. Each member was entitled to one vote, and a decision had to be unanimous in order for a record to be accepted. In the same year, Anthony Sebastian joined the Committee, and in 2000, Ooi Chin Hock was also appointed. Reports on all decisions made were published in Enggang, and later Suara Enggang, the bimonthly publication of the MNS-BCC (Davison, G.W.H.1996, Jeyarajasingam 1999, 2000, 2003a, 2003b).  In 2000, the Records Committee initiated the MNS-BCC Nest Record Card Scheme to gather information on the breeding biology of all resident birds in Malaysia. Breeding Record Sheets of resident birds were published in Suara Enggang for birdwatchers to fill in gaps in information. The Records Committee coordinated this scheme until 2005, when it was taken over by the Science and Conservation Division of MNS. Dennis Yong took over as Coordinator in 2005. This period saw the addition of several species to the country’s list of avifauna: Dusky Eagle-Owl Bubo coromandus, Common Coot Fulica atra, Plain-pouched Hornbill Aceros subruficollis and Black-headed Bunting Emberiza melanocephala (1999), Eurasian Golden Oriole Oriolus oriolus, Wandering Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna arcuata and Mountain Hawk-Eagle Spizaetus nipalensis (2003).

In 2008, David Bakewell was appointed Chairman of the Records Committee, and Nina Cheung Secretary. The Committee was expanded to ten voting members, and the process of submission and assessment of records was moved online.

Membership

The Committee consists of up to ten voting members one of whom may be the Chairman or an additional, non-voting member may take this role. There is also a Secretary (who may be an additional voting member).

Vacancies on the Committee may arise periodically through voluntary resignation. Members may be asked to stand down if they are consistently unable to meet the responsibilities of their role.

Membership of the committee should attempt to provide a reasonable geographical spread with members having a detailed knowledge of each of the following areas:

1.     Southern Region: Selangor, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor

2.     North-west Region: Perlis, Pulau Pinang, Kedah, Perak

3.     North-east and Central Region: Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan

             East Malaysia:

4.     Sarawak and Labuan

5.     Sabah

Nominations & Elections

MNS-BCC RC members may nominate candidates to fill a vacancy but also invite further nominations.

The prime qualifications of candidates are;

1. a widely acknowledged expertise in identification,

2. proven reliability in the field

3. a track record of high quality submissions of descriptions of scarce and rare birds to Suara Enggang and MNS-BCC RC

4. the capacity to handle the volume of work involved in assessing up to 50 records per year promptly.

5. the capacity to work quickly and efficiently

While these are ideal qualifications, it is recognized that few candidates will fulfill all the above conditions. Qualifications 1, 2, 4 and 5 are considered ‘non-negotiable’, while 3 is of less importance.

Chairman & Secretary

MNS-BCC RC appoints their own Chairman and Secretary, in consultation with the BCC. There is no time limit to these appointments, but the Committee has an annual opportunity to vote to change its officers at the AGM, the appointment of any successful nominee being with the agreement of the BCC.

Prior to the AGM, nominations for the posts of Chairman and Secretary shall be submitted to the existing Chairman. In the event of there being two nominations for the same post, a vote shall be taken at the AGM. Decisions shall be made by simple majority.

Committee meetings

The full Committee may meet once a year if this is felt to be necessary by the members. Quorum at this meeting should be 2/3 of existing voting members of the MNS-BCC RC. The venue will rotate between the five regions. Decisions will usually be reached by consensus at this meeting but, where voting is necessary, a majority of 2/3 of those voting will be required for any change in the operating guidelines. The chairman has the casting vote.

Meetings may cover the following:

• Administrative and policy matters

• Identification matters and related topics

• Taxonomical matters

Species considered

A full list of species for which documentary evidence is sought is available from the Secretary and the website. Distinctively marked rare subspecies are also considered and published.

In a few cases, the Committee may consider and publish specifically indeterminate records of pairs or groups of rare species which are particularly difficult to separate - e.g. noddies (Anous sp.)

Species or subspecies are considered for possible removal from the list of those assessed by the Committee if records increase in frequency, at the discretion of the RC.

Submission of records

Observers are encouraged to submit records as soon as possible after the observation either on paper or electronically via email. Consideration by the Committee usually takes one to two months or longer if a recirculation or further research is necessary. It greatly helps the Committee if a MNS-BCC RC Rare and New Record Submission Form is used (available from the Secretary or on our webpage) or on A4 paper using its format. This ensures that the Committee knows all the circumstances of the sighting. If photographs are available, these are required to assist the assessment task, and sketches (no matter how poor artistically) are often more precise than words. We also encourage the submission of original field notes [or copies] as these are invaluable in the assessment of some rarities. Submission of video and sound recordings, where important to aid identification, is also encouraged. Records are sent to the Secretary, who then either uploads the submission to the MNS-BCC RC Google Group or sends it out via email for consideration by the Committee. If there is good reason for confidentiality over site and/or observers names, this should be requested when the record is submitted.

Assessment of records

Records are circulated to all Committee Members. An online form is attached to each record for members comments and votes (accept, reject and KIV, if further clarification is required). Members may occasionally use an abstain vote.

KIV – lots of experience, fully researched, still cannot decide (need more info)

Abstain – not enough experience/time/resources – cannot decide (need more info)

Members who register a KIV or Abstain vote will be given another chance to change their vote at the end of the discussion phase.

For a record to be accepted on first circulation at least eight members (or 75% of membership if there are fewer than eight votes registered) must vote in favour of a record and there should be no reject votes.

One reject vote and 75% accept means a KIV decision is passed.

More than one reject vote means a Reject decision is passed.

In the event that a voting member does not register a vote within 3 months of the record being put up for assessment, the voter will forfeit the right to vote on that record. The record will then be assessed on the number of votes registered maintaining the 75% Accept and no Reject ratio of votes for records to be acceptable.

Once all votes have been received for a given record, if there is a lack of unanimity, any member may raise points for discussion concerning the record via email. After all members have been given opportunity to participate, any member is free to change his/her vote in the light of the discussion. A deadline for this process to conclude will be decided by consensus on a case by case basis.

Recirculations occur when there are no Reject votes but fewer than 75% Accepts due to abstentions or KIVs, when requested by any member during the first circulation or when the Secretary or Chairman feels that this is warranted by the comments made during the first circulation.

If there are more than two abstentions, the opinions of 'outside experts' will be sought. Expert opinion from outside the Committee does not constitute a vote, but will be used to inform Committee members. Once an expert's opinion is received, the comments will be sent to all members, who are invited to change their vote if they wish to do so.

In the event that a record remains 'in limbo' after consulting experts (ie more than 20% abstentions, no Rejects), the record will be put into a KIV file indefinitely, until such time that fresh information on the status and identification of the species becomes available.

After circulation, all records, comment sheets and relevant correspondence are retained permanently on file whether or not the record is accepted. All comments and the votes of individual members are strictly confidential.

Advice of decisions

All decisions are notified to the observer(s) submitting the record. The reasons for decisions can be summarized.

Reconsideration of earlier records

If there is new evidence, or any other legitimate reason, the Committee will reconsider any record on request. The majority of reconsiderations concern reviews of all records of a species where there has been a significant advance in established identification criteria. Rejection of a previously accepted and published record is regarded as a serious matter and requires at least 75% reject votes rather than the two votes that are normally required.

Withdrawal of accepted records

Any observer has the right to withdraw a past accepted record, at any time, by communicating this wish to the secretary of MNS-BCC RC. The observer is under no obligation to explain why, although such explanations would be welcomed. However, the secretary should endeavour to ascertain whether or not there was any question of the record having not been properly assessed at the time. In the case of a record in which more than one claimant was involved, care must be taken to ensure that the withdrawal is supported by all parties involved. If only the one observer wishes to withdraw, further investigation may be necessary. If the matter cannot be readily resolved, a supplementary should be published to the effect that the withdrawer no longer supports the record and MNS-BCC RC reserves the right to re-assess the record afresh.

The Annual Cycle

Normally, the Secretary will upload to the Google Group up to ten records per quarter for assessment by the MNS-BCC RC. Once a record has been satisfactorily assessed it is moved into an Archive file. This should in most cases take no longer than one calendar month. The observer is informed of the MNS-BCC RC decision within the following month. Decisions of the MNS-BCC RC will be published annually.

Records involving contentious matters requiring extensive enquiries, reference to other authorities and so on, may take longer to be processed. Some records may be placed in a ‘KIV’ category indefinitely, until further information on identification and/or taxonomy is available.

Publications

Accepted records, a list of records not accepted and a list of records under consideration are published in Suara Enggang, in the Committee's annual report on rare birds in Malaysia.

The MNS-BCC RC’s annual report is usually published in the year following the year under review. Publication in one place greatly facilitates analyses of rarity occurrences in the region covered. Up to three observers are usually acknowledged after each record. For each species, the report may include a general comment on trends and a running total of records in the whole of Malaysia.

Published notes on rarities

Full details of first records of species for Malaysia are published in Suara Enggang. Observers are asked to prepare suitable notes for publication but in the rare cases where these are not forthcoming, a committee member may prepare one from the submitted details. Such notes provide a valuable identification reference for species whose field characters may be little known. Some particularly good descriptions of especially rare or hard-to-identify species may be published as a standard to which others may aspire.

Identification research

The central deposit of rarity descriptions and opinions on difficult identification topics means that problem areas can be pinpointed. An important offshoot of the Committee's work is the promotion of publication of notes and papers to clarify these areas. Some may take the form of an analysis of a species characteristics whilst others may be about a particular individual record. Descriptions of rarities in the Committee's files are available to any bona-fide researcher investigating new or improved identification criteria. Requests for their use should be sent to the Secretary with a brief outline of the purpose, objectives and expected outputs from the use of the descriptions. The committee reserves the right to levy a charge for the use of descriptions in certain cases.

Escaped birds

After identification has been accepted, a second round of voting may take place to consider the likelihood of wild origin. This round of voting will take place only if 1 or more members express concern over wild origins.

Second vote procedure:

1. Assign members to conduct research including

   1. Check pet shops. Bird parks etc

   2. Contact TRAFFIC

   3. Check  vagrancy status/range extensions etc in region and beyond

2. Chairman will collate info and present a summary report to members

3. Members will vote on Category Status

Category A:  Species recorded at least once in a wild state since 1963.

Category B: Species recorded at least once in a wild state, but not since 1963.      

Category C:  Species occurring as a result of (or probably as a result of) deliberate or accidental human introduction. The population is considered self-sustaining.at D: Introduced and may or may not have established self-sustaining populations.

Category D: Species occurring as a result of (or probably as a result of) deliberate or accidental human introduction. Continued existence in the wild is considered dependent upon repeat introductions.

Birds in Categories A, and B only will be included in the official list of Malaysian birds.

The possibility of captive origin may be assessed by a vote: if 75% of members consider that a particular rare bird has probably or certainly escaped from captivity, it is not included in the main list or the species totals, but is nevertheless always mentioned in the comments for future reference, and enters Category C or D.

Public involvement

The Committee is fully conscious it must command the ongoing confidence of the birding community or it would not be able to function. MNS-BCC RC has no automatic or legal expectation that birders submit records to them. We can only perform our task of record assessment and keeping of the national record with the good will and co-operation of the majority of birders in the country. Confidence in the Committee's fairness and efficiency is essential. Any suggested improvements in its operation are always welcome and should be sent to the Secretary.

Record reviews

Records on which a decision has already been made.

1: Reviews of a series of records. These are usually brought about by:

• New knowledge about identification criteria for a species – records either accepted or rejected, or sometimes both, may be reviewed in the light of new knowledge of a species or confusion species.

• New knowledge about an observer – a review of an individual observer’s records may take place in some circumstances.

• Change in occurrence pattern of a species

2: Reviews of individual records.

These usually follow a request from the observer. Occasionally, they are the result of third party input shedding doubt on a certain record. There are, however, some fundamental requirements before such records can be re-circulated.

• We would not reconsider a record at the request of the observer unless there is new information given which may affect the original decision.

• We would not consider ‘retrospective information’. This includes

  • • Drawings done several weeks/months after the original sighting

    • Subsequent experience of the species

• We would not reconsider a record at the suggestion of a third party if they refuse to put information on paper or insist on anonymity.

[1] Version 6, approved on 10 Oct 2010 at the 2010 AGM. Category definitions updated on 1 Sep 2012.