IRBC - Irish Rare Bird Report

The first Irish Bird Report for the year 1953 was published in 1954 by the Irish Ornithologists Club. It was edited by the late Major Robert F. Ruttledge. The report continued in this format until the 23rd Annual Report for 1975 was published in 1976. By this time Ken Preston had taken over as editor from Major Ruttledge. Subsequent to 1976 Irish Bird Reports were included in the journal, Irish Birds, published by the Irish Wildbird Conservancy (now known as BirdWatch Ireland).

The 51st and last Irish Bird Report for the year 2003 was edited by Paul Milne and was included in Irish Birds volume 7 number 4 published in 2005. In that year a decision to amend the scope of the report was taken by the Irish Rare Birds Committee which 'brought forward a change in the format of rare bird recording in Ireland for 2004 and henceforth, which will see the IRBC focus solely on rare bird recording' (IRBC 2006). For more details on this decision click here.

In the intervening years Hugh Brazier, Jim Dowdall, Jim Fitzharris, Kieran Grace, Pat Smiddy, Oran O'Sullivan, Dave McAdams, Eric Dempsey, Kieran Fahy, Mark Carmody, Joe Hobbs, Colin Barton and Colum Flynn have all undertaken editorial duties of the Irish Bird Report and Irish Rare Bird Report at various times. The current editor is Aonghus O’Donaill.

This new approach was immediately implemented and the Irish Bird Report made way for the Irish Rare Bird Report (IRBR). The first IRBR for 2004 was published in Irish Birds volume 8 number 1 in 2006. Subsequent reports are in Irish Birds volume 8 numbers 3 & 4, volumes 9 & 10 and numbers 41 & 42. The most recent report is for 2021 published in Irish Birds 45: 49-74 (2023).

The 2005 to 2021 reports are also available for download through this website as PDFs. Simply follow the links in the right hand column for the relevent report introduction and a link to a PDF copy of the report.

The journal Irish Birds is published annually and is available from Wings, the BirdWatch Ireland online shop.

Irish Rare Bird Report File Sizes

Please note the large file size of each report before begining to download. The PDF documents are of various sizes up to 7MB.

Wings Online Shop

Irish Birds is available from Wings, BirdWatch Ireland's online shop.

References