Records are collected and circulated in batches of ten, each committee member taking turns to be the first to comment,and assess, providing background research for other committee members if needed. Members examines the evidence for each record and vote to accept, reject, pend for more evidence or pass (if no opinion is offered or if the committee member is also the observer). Decisions to accept the of a new species for the Seychelles list must be unanimous. Other identifications require acceptance by at least all but one of the committee. If a record receives a majority in favour but insufficient for acceptance it is recirculated. Records may also be recirculated if they are not accepted on first circulation but new evidence is forthcoming.
Most records that are not accepted fail to give sufficient detail and in particular, fail to rule out possible confusion species. Sometimes the species may be well known to the observer but always remember that while a bird may be familiar to you, if it is to be documented properly, you will need to say how it was identified. It is particularly important to give this information for extreme rarities.
A summary of the most noteworthy sightings received by SBRC is published every six months in the Recent Reports section of the Bulletin of the Africa Bird Club. Accepted records are published on this website. A full report is also published every five years is also published in Bulletin of the Africa Bird Club and reports to date are available on the latest news page of this website. Observers of first records for Seychelles are encouraged to publish these in full and some of these are also available on the first country records page of this site.