Mid-Summer Birds

Mid summer, Hong Kong birders often will tell you this is the quietest time of the year, with barely anything happening, there are barely any migrants, often no vagrants and weather is just too hot for anyone to be outside for any extended period of time. There are still some breeding birds around, but often nothing too exciting. A Chestnut-winged Cuckoo I got at home last month was probably the best I could manage, it did showed exceptionally well though, considering I didn't even need to leave my front door!

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo

If you care to look, all our resident species are still present. Yellow-bellied Prinias and Plain Prinias both breeds in Hong Kong, if you are lucky you sometimes can find their nests in the tall grass.

Yellow-bellied Prinia

Plain Prinia - nest

Many forest species are still active during the hottest month of the year, although getting to them often takes a lot more effort...So, all my recent sightings have been incidental. I got a pair of lovely Silver-eared Mesia posing nicely for me near Chuen Lung one morning, and a relatively cooperative Speckled Piculet near Sheung Shui.

Silver-eared Mesia

Speckled Piculet

Hainan Blue Flycatchers are one of our most prominent breeders in the forest of Hong Kong, while males are not really vocal anymore, around this time of the year it is not uncommon to see adults with their recently fledged youngs.

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - female

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male with juvenile

We don't have that many waterbirds or waders breeding in Hong Kong, Little Ringed Plover is one of the few, if you ever get too close to their nesting site, you will see the adult fake an injury, such as this one that was deliberately dropped its wings to act as if it was injured, so to lure me away from the actual nest site. I had no chance finding the actual nest anyway, as the egg was just so well camouflaged!

Little Ringed Plover

I paid a visit to the Black Baza breeding site near Sheung Shui, its been quite the focal point among photographers. I was quite surprised the pair have not abandoned the site given how much of the habitat have been destroyed by the construction right next to it, but they seems very loyal to this site. This is the last remaining breeding pair of Black Baza that I know in Hong Kong, who knows how many more years they will still breed here, my hope is that they will perhaps use other suitable habitats nearby if this patch of forest becomes too disturbed. I only got photo of one of the two birds, the other was seemingly busy hawking for insects in the dense foliage. It will be a shame if we lose this charismatic raptor as a breeding species.

Black Baza - one of our rarest local breeder