Rare Birds in Iran in 19802010

Following on from the major reviews of rare birds in Iran during the periods 1860s�1960s (Roselaar & Aliabadian 2009) and 1967�1978 (Scott 2008), records of rare birds in Iran during the period 1980–2010 have been evaluated by the Iran Bird Records Committee and are presented here. As there was relatively little ornithological activity in Iran in the 1980s and early 1990s, most of the records come from the late 1990s and 2000s. The 102 rare species recorded in 1980�2010 include 15 species that had not previously been recorded in Iran. Rare species have been categorised in three groups: genuine rarities (71 species), rare and local breeding birds (20 species), and former rarities that have been increasing in Iran in recent years (11 species). A total of 281 records of the 71 genuine rarities are listed here. Forty-nine species were recorded on fewer than four occasions, and only four were recorded on more than 10 occasions. Fifty-one species that are known to have occurred in Iran prior to 1980 were not observed during the period under review. Six of the increasing species are now recorded so frequently in Iran that they will be omitted from future lists of rare birds. Of the 153 species considered in this paper (including 20 species in the IUCN Red List categories), 95 have either been recorded on fewer than 10 occasions in the last 50 years or have not been recorded in Iran since 1980. These are considered to be extreme rarities, i.e. species for which detailed descriptions are required if records are to be considered for acceptance by the Iran Bird Records Committee and published in its future reports.