The currency of bird records committees has been “records,” but the definition of a record is not as simple as it may seem. Does a flock of 17 Hudsonian Godwits (Limosa haemastica) in Oregon constitute 1 or 17 records? What about a Thick-billed Kingbird (Tyrannus crassirostris) that returns winter after winter but is gone each spring, or a Neotropic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) that occurs off and on at the same location for years but is absent for months at a time? Multiple records at different locations, furthermore, might or might not consist of repeated sightings of the same individual. It is these sorts of scenarios that have led the California Bird Records Committee (CBRC 2007) and others to focus more on individual birds than