First Report of the North Dakota Rare Bird Committee

The status, distribution, and abundance of North Dakota\u27s bird life was summarized several times during the twentieth century (e.g., Wood 1923, Bailey 1926, Stewart 1971, Stewart 1975). The most recent official North Dakota state bird list was Faanes and Stewart (1982). The state\u27s avifauna has changed markedly since that list was published. In an attempt to document some of those changes, the North Dakota Natural Science Society formed the North Dakota Ornithological Records Committee in 1979. That committee\u27s goals were to evaluate and archive documentations of rare bird sighting and to periodically revise the official state bird list. Herein we summarize the efforts of that and subsequent committees from 1981 to 2001