This report contains 257 records reviewed by the California Bird Records Committee (hereafter the Committee) and is the largest of the eleven reports compiled thus far. A total of 81 species is covered as follows: 234 records of 73 species accepted and 23 records of 20 species not accepted. Thus, 91% of the reports are accepted. The rate of acceptance in the last four Committee reports has varied from 88% to 92%, whereas in previous reports the rate has been as low as 74% and as high as 97%. The records dealt with here span 90 years from 1896 to 1986 and include reports for almost every year from 1960 onward. Over half of the records, however, are from the last two years of that period (99 for 1985 and 40 for 1986).