About us

Bulgarian Rarities Committee (BgRC)

Bulgarian Rarities Committee (BgRC, former BUNARCO) is an independent body, founded and working according to the internationally accepted rules of the Association of the European Records Rarities Committees (AERC) http://www.aerc.eu . The Bulgarian Rarities Committee (BgRC)follows the rules, aims and goals of the rest of the national rarities committees of European countries. BgRC succeeded the Commission of the Rarities of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of the Birds (BSPB), founded on June 3^rd 1988. Up to 1994 this Commission fulfilled a number of tasks for Bulgaria to become a part of AERC.
On December the 7^th, 1995 all the most prominent Bulgarian ornithologists and birdwatchers were invited to set up an independent Rarities Committee. Not all attended the meeting, but a decision was made and the Bulgarian Rarities Committee was established. The Committee was voted in and the first Chairman was Prof. Bojidar Ivanov.
The creation of the BgRC was announced by AERC in October 1996, since when it has been the internationally legitimate body for Bulgaria.
The aim of BgRC is to ensure only accepted proven data is published in scientific literature, as well as tracking, documenting and evaluating all the sightings in Bulgaria, related to:

reporting of a new, rare or uncommon species of bird for the Bulgarian fauna
recording the first record of the breeding of a certain species of bird
records of bird species whose area of distribution is outside Bulgaria
records of species outside their normal time of year and habitat

BgRC periodically updates the National List of Bird Species, as well as publishing reports for the accepted or rejected records.
The area BgRC is dealing with is the territory of Bulgaria including the inner sea waters, the territorial sea, (the adjacent zone) and the 200 mile economic zone of Bulgaria.

BgRC Members

Lyubomir Profirov
Milko Dimitrov
Dimiter Georgiev
Kalin Velev
Simeon Gigov

The longtime members of the Committee, who actively worked for it since its establishment, Bozhidar Ivanov and Petar Yankov decided to terminate their membership after December 31^st, 2020. They were the main authors of the Report for the first 10 observations of all rare bird species in Bulgaria until December 31^st, 2019

Before their resignment, Bozhidar Ivanov and Petar Yankov took part in the voting for the two new members of the Committee - Kalin Velev and Simeon Gigov.