Red-flanked Bluetail, April 2011.
The fifth report of the Taxonomic Sub-Committee of the BOU Records Committee (TSC) was published in Ibis in 2008 (Knox et al. 2008). At that time the IRBC incorporated any relevant recommendations in the report to the Irish List. The report also recommended spliting the polytypic Red-flanked Bluetail Tarsiger cyanurus in to two monotypic species, i.e. Red-flanked Bluetail T. cyanurus and the extralimital Himalayan Bluetail T. rufilatus. This now has relevance to the Irish List following the publication of the 2009 Irish Rare Bird Report, which includes the first record of Red-flanked Bluetail on Dursey Island, Co. Cork on the 10th November 2009 (Irish Birds 9(2): 276). The IRBC adopts the recommendations of the TSC in treating Red-flanked Bluetail as monotypic and adds it as a category A species to the Irish List. The report should be consulted for the full exposition of the TSC's decisions.
A PDF version of the latest Irish List may be downloaded here.
References
Knox, A.G., Collinson, J.M., Parkin, D.T. Sangster, G. & Svensson, L. 2008. Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Fifth report. Ibis 150: 833-835.