Rare Bird Review List
This list consists of birds that have very rarely occurred in Ohio. Species on the Review List must be acceptably documented before adding them to the official record.
The OBRC considers changes to the Review List at its annual meetings. The list is compiled (beyond including all species never accepted for Ohio) by including all species averaging fewer than one record per year over the latest ten-year period, adding selected species that have averaged between one and three records per year in a similar span, then adding a few species whose populations are declining precipitously even if they exceed other numerical criteria.
This list is current as of July 2026 and follows the nomenclature and taxonomic sequence of the American Ornithological Society’s Checklist of North and Middle American Birds through the Sixty-sixth Supplement (August 2025).
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Garganey
Cinnamon Teal
Tufted Duck
King Eider
Common Eider
Barrow’s Goldeneye
American Flamingo
Western Grebe
Common Ground Dove
Smooth-billed Ani
Groove-billed Ani
White-throated Swift
Mexican Violetear
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Anna’s Hummingbird
Calliope Hummingbird
Allen’s Hummingbird
Broad-billed Hummingbird
Purple Gallinule
Limpkin
Whooping Crane
Black Rail
Northern Lapwing
Wilson’s Plover
Snowy Plover
Eskimo Curlew
Long-billed Curlew
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
Curlew Sandpiper
Red-necked Stint
Eurasian Woodcock
Spotted Redshank
Marsh Sandpiper
Thick-billed Murre
Black Guillemot
Long-billed Murrelet
Ancient Murrelet
Atlantic Puffin
Ivory Gull
Ross’s Gull
Black-tailed Gull
Heermann’s Gull
Common Gull
Short-billed Gull
Slaty-backed Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Kelp Gull
Sooty Tern
Large-billed Tern
Roseate Tern
Arctic Tern
Royal Tern
Arctic Loon
Leach’s Storm-Petrel
Black-capped Petrel
Lesser Frigatebird
Magnificent Frigatebird
Brown Booby
Northern Gannet
Anhinga
Great Cormorant
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
White-tailed Kite
American Goshawk
Harris’s Hawk
Swainson’s Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
Northern Hawk Owl
Burrowing Owl
Great Gray Owl
Boreal Owl
Red-naped Sapsucker
Black-backed Woodpecker
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Gyrfalcon
Prairie Falcon
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Tropical Kingbird
Gray Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Gray Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Western Flycatcher
Say’s Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
Black-billed Magpie
Boreal Chickadee
Violet-green Swallow
Cave Swallow
Bohemian Waxwing
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Rock Wren
Bewick’s Wren
Sage Thrasher
Mountain Bluebird
Townsend’s Solitaire
Northern Wheatear
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
White Wagtail
Sprague’s Pipit
Brambling
Pine Grosbeak
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Cassin’s Sparrow
Bachman’s Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Lark Bunting
Brewer’s Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Baird’s Sparrow
Green-tailed Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Western Meadowlark
Hooded Oriole
Bullock’s Oriole
Brewer’s Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Swainson’s Warbler
Virginia’s Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Townsend’s Warbler
Painted Redstart
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
News
OBRC Review List Species Updates: March 2022 to December 2025
Summary of all official updates to the Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Ohio since the 2022 edition cutoff, detailing newly accepted Review List species, committee decisions, and AOS taxonomic revisions through late 2025.