Silver Oriole - Another Early Autumn Rarity

Three species of Orioles have been recorded in Hong Kong before, Black-naped Oriole being a fairly common and regular passage migrant, the other two are Maroon Oriole and Silver Oriole, both having just been recorded in Hong Kong once. The Maroon Oriole record was a single bird from Po Toi, however it was later deemed as an ex-captive individual due to the race being the largely sedentory Taiwanese subspecies. The only Silver Oriole record also came from Po Toi, on November 2018, this species is globally very rare, and are known to breed in central and southern China, while wintering down in South East Asia, most records outside of China comes from Thailand, where it is a rare winter visitor. Therefore, when Tom Li posted he found a Silver Oriole up on Ngong Ping, you can imagine the excitement! 

When I arrived, it was just over 2 hours after Tom sent out the news, a few birders were already there but had no luck. We walked around the supposed GPS spot without seeing much, by 12:30pm I think most of us there thought the bird might have moved on. I decided to take a walk closer to the main road, just to see if I can bump some bird activity, an Amur Paradise Flycatcher came in hawking for insects, as I was looking at the flycatcher, a much larger bird flew in briefly and out to hide behind the tree. At that moment I suspected it could be the oriole, but I did not see any details on the bird and therefore could not confirm. I waited for a few minutes when the bird finally moved and came into view, sure enough it was the Silver Oriole! I took a few photos and immediately called the other guys over. For the next hour or so the bird showed fairly well on and off. By the looks of its dark iris it should be a young bird, and likely a female.

Silver Oriole - Incredible Rarity!

Other birds nearby along the trail includes 2 Amur Paradise Flycatchers, as well as a Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and a single male Hainan Blue Flycatcher, making for quite a nice supporting cast along that short stretch of trail behind the Big Buddha.

Amur Paradise Flycatcher

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - juvenile

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male

I haven't birded anywhere near home for a while, Wu Kau Tang is one of my favourite place locally to check, however last winter was quiet disappointing that have resulted in me largely neglecting the site for a while. And, quietness seems to have continued onto this autumn, I failed to locate any Barred Cuckoo Dove in the valley, although I am sure they will be around somewhere...I found a fairly interesting looking immature male Fork-tailed Sunbird with some adult feathers coming through. Indochinese Green Magpie is of course a staple here in north east New Territories, however it doesn't make them any easier to get photos of. Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babblers are fairly common here, and not unusual to see a few of them during a walk here.

Fork-tailed Sunbird - juvenile male

Indochinese Green Magpie

Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler

A female Hainan Blue Flycatcher as well as 2 juvenile Yellow-rumped Flycatchers were about the best birds I could manage on a morning walk. Pale-legged Leaf Warblers are now returning, I heard up to 2 birds but didn't want to show.

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - female

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - juvenile

Wu Kau Tang is also quite well known for its dragonflies, with several usually rare or uncommon species regularly found here. The Blue-spotted Duskhawker is one of those more unusual species, I saw 3 individuals just along the stream here. Before I left I found an adult Taiwan Kukri Snake hiding behind some plants next to the footpath, I didn't want anyone killing it so I ushered it back into the bush.

Blue-spotted Duskhawker

Taiwan Kukri Snake

We just had our first typhoon of the season, a very strong typhoon Yagi that luckily mostly missed Hong Kong, as it landed further west towards Hainan Island, we got mostly strong east winds in Hong Kong, which in my experience pushes in various terns into Plover Cove, so in the morning of the typhoon I decided to head out to the dam to scan the sea, sure enough there were hundreds of terns. Mostly Common Terns, over hundreds of them! I scanned for Aleutian Terns but had no luck.

Typhoon bringin in a lot of terns

 Common Tern

Whiskered Terns were also in fairly good numbers, many of them flew up the dam and onto the reservoir, making for quite an interesting sight.

Whiskered Tern

A few Great Crested Terns were amongst the best of the terns, I also saw a few distant Little Terns and a single Gull-billed Tern. I keep hoping for some true pelagic birds, but given how far in I am, the probability of that happening is not high.

Great Crested Tern

Unexpected Rarity(?) - Black-chinned Fruit-Dove

Fruit-Doves are generally considered a fairly exotic genera of birds, mainly found in the Philippines, Malaysian Peninsular, Indonesia and all the way down to Australia. As their name suggests, they are mainly frugivores, favouring fruits such as figs, therefore they are fairly nomadic within their range. We have our range of exotic looking Columbidae in Hong Kong in form of various species of Green Pigeons which occasionally turn up in Hong Kong, but never have we gotten a Fruit-Dove before...until recently! A friend of mine Charles Cheng sent me a photo one early morning of a green dove, which I immediately replied was a Black-chinned Fruit-Dove, I thought he was on a trip down towards the Philippines, therefore I asked him where he took the photo, and to my surprise he said "Lai Chi Kok Park"! Having gotten the gps coordinates to where he took the photo, I went over straight away. 

By the time I got there it was just around 9:30am, light was harsh and getting very hot, the fruiting fig tree was filled with Asian Koels busy feeding, but no Fruit-Dove in sight. It took Hoiling and I 10 minutes before out of nowhere, a green dove climbed up from the branches below to the fruiting tree. And there it was! In full glory, a Black-chinned Fruit-Dove feeding on the figs right before our eyes.

Black-chinned Fruit-Dove - female / immature male

I am not entirely sure whether this is a female or an immature male, as they can be tricky to tell apart, both have been suggested. Eitherway, there is very little debate as in what species this is. However, I noticed 2 broken terials on its right wing, which is certainly odd, considering the rest of the bird looks immaculate. Whether this 1st record is accepted onto the Hong Kong list remains to be seen, but certainly an interesting and very exciting bird to see in Hong Kong.

Black-chinned Fruit-Dove - broken tertails on the right

For the next few days, the dove showed fairly regularly in the early hours of the day, attracting hundreds of twitchers and photographers. I went once more before I had work one morning, but it only perched high up in the tree and didn't move around. Apparently that was the last day it appeared, and it was not found again the next day.

Black-chinned Fruit-Dove - one last look...

I've not had too much luck with much of the forest migrants, except for Amur Paradise Flycatchers. Theres been quite a few Yellow-rumped Flycatchers seen at Ho Man Tin, I just haven't bothered to head over there...Over at Tai Po Kau, it was much the same with a few Amur Paradise Flycatchers still around, plus other common resident species, otherwise it was fairly quiet.

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Crested Goshawk

Black-throated Laughingthrush

Silver-eared Mesia

There are certainly birds moving through, such as Oriental Pratincoles, which included a few juveniles. Richard's Pipits are now returning in small numbers, no doubt will soon see many more of this species. Over at Tai Sang Wai I had a single White-winged Tern, plus a drained pond with quite a few waders on it, including a pair of Red-necked Phalaropes.

Oriental Pratincole

Richard's Pipit

White-winged Tern

Red-necked Phalarope

I finally had a bit more luck with some snakes, including a Diamond-backed Water Snake that was sleeping on a branch above the stream. I find this to be one of our prettier snake, with lovely patterns on its back, while not really a rare snake, I haven't gotten much chance to photograph this one up close before.

Diamond-backed Water Snake - Trimerodytes aequifasciatus

A nice encounter with a baby Checkered Keelback was nice, I find juveniles to have much nicer patterns than adults. Adults are known to be quite bitey when handled, but this juvenile was fairly docile and calm.

Checkered / Yellow-spotted Keelback - Fowlea flavipunctata

Finally, two adults Many-Banded Kraits, seen on the same evening. The bigger of the two individual was seen cruising along a rice paddy, probably looking for Long-tailed Skinks I presume. The second smaller individual was seen coming out of the pond, it immediately coiled up to take the classic Krait 'defensive' pose, and soon cruised off back into the water and out of sight. Even though they are common, I still find them to be an exciting species to encounter.

1st Many-Banded Krait - Bungarus multicinctus

2nd Many-Banded Krait - Bungarus multicinctus

Autumn Beginning - Buttonquail & Amur Paradise Flycatcher

I had an interesting encounter with a Barred Buttonquail in Kam Tin, this species is so seldomly recorded in Hong Kong it can almost be considered a rarity. Although, there is now confirmed breeding records in Hong Kong, meaning they may not all be autumn migrants as once thought, but actually a rare resident as well. Whether this was an early migrant or a resident bird is hard to know, either way I enjoyed this little encounter, and one that certainly made braving the hot weather worth the while.

Barred Buttonquail - quite a nice surprise!

There are still a few Hainan Blue Flycatchers around, including this juvenile male I saw at Tai Po Kau, although at this time of the year they are not as vocal and become harder to detect. I spotted a 'brown flycatcher' type bird hawking for insects high up in the tree, which I initially thought was an Asian Brown Flycatcher, but upon closer inspection, it had pale legs and the head and mantle colour was different, so no doubt a Brown-breasted Flycatcher, an odd place to see this usually riverine species. 

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - juvenile male

Brown-breasted Flycatcher

One of our first proper autumn migrants are usually Amur Paradise Flycatchers, and they seem to be coming in good numbers at the moment, I had 3 individuals at Tai Po Kau, all in one feeding flock. Another returning migrant that is usually one of the earliest is the Grey Wagtail.

Amur Paradise Flycatcher - good sign of autumn migration!

Grey Wagtail

Resident species such as Crested Serpent Eagles are seen all year round, although I find them to be not as vocal at this time of the year. Same goes with Great Barbets, while their presence can still sometimes be made known by their call, they are nowhere as vocal as in spring.

Crested Serpent Eagle

Great Barbet

Strangely enough, late summer and early autumn always seems to be quite a good time to see Pygmy Cupwings, perhaps post breeding many juveniles are dispersing? While I have no idea exactly why that is, here are three different individuals which showed very well to me in the past week along the same stretch of road at Tai Po Kau, just to prove my point.

Pygmy Cupwing

Except for a few waders, the fish ponds around San Tin and Tai Sang Wai is still relatively quiet, a drained pond had a few small waders on there, including 2 Red-necked Stints, a few Long-toed Stint earlier in the week, and a single Temminck's Stint. All were very far away. At San Tin, I noticed a few White-cheeked Starlings, some obviously looked like juveniles, while mostly a winter visitor, they do breed in Hong Kong in small numbers. Azure-winged Magpie is an introduced resident species in Hong Kong, the population is still going strong, and I saw plenty of juveniles in the flock around Tai Sang Wai, here a juvenile enjoying a papaya.

Temminck's Stint

White-cheeked Starling - juvenile

Azure-winged Magpie - juvneile

Black-winged Kites is mainly considered a passage migrant and winter visitor in Hong Kong, although a few do over summer in Hong Kong, mainly in Mai Po area, apparently a pair was seen building a nest. Whether their attempt was successful is not known, but one of the bird I saw during my recent visit was a juvenile, whether from nearby area I am not sure. Common Kingfishers are of course one of our 3 breeding kingfisher species in Hong Kong, and looks like they have had another successful year, as I saw quite a few juveniles while out birding.

Black-winged Kite - juvenile

Common Kingfisher - juvenile

I don't think there really is a bad time of the year to look at butterflies in Hong Kong, you get various species throughout the entire year, and late summer is quite a good time when we have a good abundance of species around. I am not a huge butterfly person, but I do take a few photos if I get the chance. I have rarely seen Chestnut Angle hold up their wings while resting, so this one was an interesting observation for me. The fabulous looking Fluffy Tit, once a rarity in Hong Kong, is now regularly sighted in many areas, it is usually considered to be a fairly tropical species, their increase therefore quite often believed to be linked to rising temperature in the region. Both Common Rose and Common Birdwings are now easy to see, both fabulous looking species as always.

Chestnut Angle - Odontoptilum angulata

Fluffy Tit - Zeltus amasa

Common Rose - Pachliopta aristolochiae

Common Birdwing - Troides helena

Other late summer observations of interest, including many Pale-spotted Emperors, this particular male flew in and hovered very close to me, which allowed for a good flight shot of this usually very quick species. Yellow Featherleg and Blue Forest Damsel are both fairly common forest stream species, but doesn't make them any less attractive.

Pale-spotted Emperor - Anax guttatus

Yellow Featherleg - Copera marginipes

Blue Forest Damsel - Coeliccia cyanomelas

Finally, one of our most interesting arthropods in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Freshwater Crab, always fun to see this colourful crab walking through the forest floor on a damp day.

Hong Kong Freshwater Crab - Nanhaipotamon hongkongense