Presented during the 2026 WBCP General Assembly
by Records Committee Chair Cristina Cinco
The Records Committee (Rec Com) reports its annual accomplished tasks during the WBCP’s General Assembly. This includes the current status of the Checklist of Philippine Birds. As the club’s database keeper, the Rec Com presents the latest situation regarding the wild bird species in the country as stated in the Mission-Vision of the WBCP.
The Records Committee Members
Chairperson: Cristina R. Cinco
Vice Chair: Jops Josef
Secretary: Riza Melicor
WBCP Checklist of the Birds of the Philippines Lead Editor : Jan Jaap Brinkman
eBird Coordinator: Jops Josef
eBird Hotspot Reviewers: Forest Jarvis, Jasmin Meren
Committee Members: Mike Lu, Karen Ochavo, Cheta Chua, Mads Bajarias, Yani Barcenas, Bob Natural, Diuvs de Jesus, Jelaine Gan, Mark Jason Villa
Highlight Activities
The completion of the Checklist of Birds of the Philippines for 2026. Accomplished on 30 March 2026. Newly discovered species from the previous year up to December 2025 are added to the existing checklist. Together with species listing are their classification in terms of being endemic, migratory, resident, or accidental. The conservation status is also stated whether this may be critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, or near threatened based on the evaluation of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN.) Data is collated by Jan Jaap Brinkman. The species data are reviewed, with inputs prior to publication of the Checklist of Philippine birds. Contributors are as follows: Desmond Allen, Rob Hutchinson, Arne Jensen, Cheta Chua, W. Limparungpatthanakij, Adrian Constantino, Mads Bajarias, and Jelaine Gan.
Summary of Checklist of Birds of the Philippines for 2026:
Total Number of Philippine Bird Species: 765
Endemics: 272
Migrants: 289
Residents: 204 (species that are present in the Philippines and other Asian countries.)
***Currently the Philippine Checklist of Birds has not yet been published pending review and evaluation by the editors
2026 Trend of the Number of Species in the Philippine Checklist of Birds
The further discovery of bird species in the Philippines has been on the rise since the compilation and publication of “A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines” by Robert S. Kennedy in 2000. From the 572 species identified by Kennedy, additional species have already been gathered when the WBCP generated its first checklist in 2009. Presently in 2026, a total of 765 species have so far been listed in its data base.
Four New Species added to the Philippine Checklist of Birds in 2026
Cocos Booby – IUCN status Not evaluated. Accidental migrant. Spotted at Tubbataha Reefs, Palawan.
Eurasian Goshawk – Accidental migrant. Found in Malakdang, Batan, Batanes.
Horsefield’s Bronze Cuckoo – Accidental migrant. Discovered in Lawak Island Critical Habitat, Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), Palawan.
Stejneger’s Scoter – Accidental migrant. Sighted in Basco, Batan, Batanes.
**All four additional new species to the Philippine Checklist of Birds in 2026 are first country records. They were initial sightings, classified as accidental (sightings of less than 20 occurances). Accidental sightings are re-classified as regular migrants once they have appeared in the country at least twenty (20) times.
Notable changes to the Philippine Checklist
The entry for the Philippine Swamphen in the checklist has been reverted back to its former name: the Purple Swamphen. The Swamphen has also been reclassified from its endemic status to resident, after the presence of this species was recorded in Indonesia.
2026 Asian Waterbird Census
The Records Committee members facilitated and assisted in the midwinter Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) last January 2026, a collaborative undertaking with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the lead government agency which organizes the census in the country. WBCP members are encouraged to participate to hone their waterbird identification skills and help in the data gathering. Annual surveys are done in regular AWC sites namely the Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park (LPPWP); Tagalag/Malanday in Valenzuela; Tanza, Navotas in the National Capital Region; Balanga, Bataan; and Malolos/Paombong, Bulacan.
2026 eBird Users Update
During the early days of the WBCP data gathering for the Checklist of Philippines was manually collated based on the emailed trip report submissions by its members and other sources over the web like those done by foreign bird tour companies. In 2015, the WBCP connected with eBird of Cornell University with collaborative work based on the club’s data base and the migration to the eBird system of reporting.
Over the years, eBird has been used by WBCP members with reports exponentially rising since the partnership has been established ten years ago. There has been a steady increase of more than 20% over the years.
The Rec Com annual report concluded with news of further exploring collaborative work with eBird in a project involving Philippine bird identification. Avilist has reached out to consult on preferred Philippine bird species names as part of their effort to publish a unified global species taxonomy for 2026.
The presentation ended with a photo taken during the 2026 AWC in Bulacan with a high count of more than 41,000 waterbirds.