Goldcrest & Other November Rarities

November have been a fairly good month, with good range of rarities that turned up. The best bird is probably the first real twitchable Goldcrest on Po Toi that stayed for at least a week now, this is only the 3rd record in Hong Kong, with one previously at Tai Po Kau and another also on Po Toi. I only stayed for about an hour there, and had great views of the bird. I am of course familiar with Goldcrests, having seen too many to count in the UK, but this is the first of the Asian race I have seen, although I am not entirely sure which race it is, most likely japonensis or yunnanensis, the generally greyish neck probably favours the former.

Goldcrest - 3rd Hong Kong record

Other birds on Po Toi includes a very unseasonal female Narcissus Flycatcher, we have been getting quite a lot of them this autumn, which is unusual as they are more often seen in spring. Also on the same tree were a few more Leaf Warblers, including this Arctic type warbler, this one looks quite yellowish, which tease the idea of a Japanese Leaf Warbler, although it never made any call, so I don't think there is any way to confirm its true identity.

Narcissus Flycatcher - female

'Arctic type' Warbler - very yellow on the throat and underparts, although no call...

Other birds noted on the island during my includes a female Ashy Minivet, and a few confiding Oriental Turtle Doves. Siberian Rubythroats and various wintering species were also heard or seen, overall not bad at all for Po Toi!

Ashy Minivet - female

Oriental Turtle Dove

Long Valley was reopened earlier this month, which attracted a lot of birders and photographers to visit this site 'legally' once again! It feels great to be able to walk inside and see all the birds there, the habitat fortunately still looks great and overall I feel positive about what they did there. One of the most notable rarity there was a Common Reed Bunting, which I just managed to catchup with before it disappeared. This is generally a very scarce species in Hong Kong, with a few wintering in Mai Po every year, although usually out of bounds for normal visitors. This one showed pretty well and occasionally came quite close.

Common Reed Bunting - a local 'rarity'

November is a great time for buntings all around, there were plenty at Long Valley. Yellow-breasted Bunting being the most numerous and easiest to see, this Critically Endangered species is luckily still a regular visitor here in Hong Kong. Little Buntings, Chestnut-eared Buntings and Black-faced Buntings are all regular visitors that you may encounter here. Two rarer Buntings that showed up recently were a small influx of Rustic Buntings for a few days and a Black-headed Bunting.

Yellow-breasted Bunting - female

Little Bunting

Chestnut-eared Bunting

Black-faced Bunting - male

Rustic Bunting - one of four that day!

Black-headed Bunting - juvenile

The large numbers of munias and buntings also attracts predators, here are two different individuals of Besras, if you are lucky you sometimes see them swooshing down to take a munia or two!

Besra - female

Besra - male

Another rarity that turned up at Long Valley is a Tundra Bean Goose! The interesting thing about this bird was that it was completely fearless and was not bothered by people at all, it would walk all the way up to people while feeding.

Tundra Bean Goose - long staying individual

Long Valley is also just generally a great place to visit to photograph some of our more common birds, birds here are often quite used to having people around and will often allow quite close approach, therefore making this a great area to take photos!

Black-winged Stilt

Common Snipe

Little Ringed Plover - female

Amur Stonechat - male

Mai Po's also been getting a few rarities of its own, the most interesting one probably a Glossy Ibis that turned up for a few days, only the 6th record for Hong Kong after a two years gap. Another good bird that turned up was an Oriental Stork, which I found while leading a tour, we saw it flew in from the north and dropped down onto the scrape.

Glossy Ibis

Oriental Stork

Other birds seen around Mai Po lately includes a pair of Eurasian Wrynecks, usually quite vocal but doesn't always show themselves. Black-faced Spoonbills are now returning in good numbers, and with them were a few Eurasian Spoonbills.

Eurasian Wryneck

Black-faced Spoonbill

Eurasian Spoonbill

Chinese Penduline Tits are in good numbers this winter it seems, and have been showing quite well around the reedbeds at Mai Po. On the scrape I have seen yet another Nordmann's Greenshank one day, but it was too far for any photos, Far Eastern Curlew performed much better. Several over wintering raptors have now returned, including Eastern Imperial Eagles and Greater Spotted Eagles, although none have been seen up close, an Eastern Buzzard was the closest raptor I got lately.

Chinese Penduline Tit - female

Far Eastern Curlew - right

Eastern Buzzard

Over at Kam Tin, Grey-headed Lapwings have returned and showing well on most days. There are quite a few starlings around at the moment, Red-billed and White-cheeked both in good numbers, here is a confiding White-cheeked I saw during one of my outings.

White-cheeked Starling

Grey-headed Lapwing

I think wintering forest species have been generally underperforming, we have been getting fewer wintering warblers, and very few regular wintering forest birds such as thrushes and Tristram's Buntings, unfortunately this trend seems to have continued from last year so far, I hope cold front next week will bring some proper wintering species in. At the meantime, a few Asian Stubtails are seen here and there, at least two Verditer Flycatchers were seen along Shek Kong Catchwater, and plenty of Hair-crested Drongos there.

Asian Stubtail

Verditer Flycatcher - male

Hair-crested Drongo

Australia - New South Wales : Nov 2024 - Part 4

Day 8 - Chiltern

This was our last morning of proper birding before we had to drive all the way back to Sydney, we got up early again and packed all our stuff. Just outside the hotel were a few flowering bottlebrush trees, which attracted a few birds, including some Yellow Thornbills. Superb Fairywrens are forever present, and the familiar but non-native Blackbirds are common garden birds.

Superb Fairywren - male

Yellow Thornbill

Eurasian Blackbird - a common non-native species

We arrived at Cyanide Dam and was greeted by a lone Pacific Heron on the water. Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters were again quite common. A Willie Wagtail nesting nearby was hawking for food near where we parked the car.

Pacific Heron

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater

Willie Wagtail

A Swamp Wallaby showed up, although it stayed quite far away from us. A flock of Brown-headed Honeyeaters showed very well and allowed us to get some good photos.

Swamp Wallaby

Brown-headed Honeyeater

Other birds that were seen includes a few confiding Striated Thornbills and White-throated Treecreepers. Splendid Fairywrens were again present.

Striated Thornbill

White-throated Treecreeper - female

Superb Fairywren - male

Our only new addition to our trip came in form of a Satin Flycatcher, it stayed quite high up but showed well enough for everyone to get a good look.

Satin Flycatcher - male

We didn't have a lot of time on our hands, so we headed over to Green Hill Dam, on the way in we got great views of a small flock of Superb Parrots! All feeding quite low down! I don't think I can get bored of looking at this fabulous parrot.

Superb Parrot - adult male

Superb Parrot - immature male

The walk around Green Hill Dam was a bit underwhelming, as we added very few birds. A Spotted Pardalote was perhaps one of the more interesting birds present. We spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to get photo of the extremely common Fuscous Honeyeater, for some reason they were all staying very high up and extremely jumpy, making photographing them a real challenge, in the end I made do with a record photo.

Spotted Pardalote - female

Fuscous Honeyeater

The best was saved for last, as we were walking back to the car, we came upon a male Crested Shrike-tit! It showed very well for us, allowing us to get some good photos. No doubt the best bird of the morning! From there, we drove nearly 6 hours back to Sydney, by the time we got to our hotel it was already late afternoon, we decided to call it a day on birding and later went out for dinner at Cabramatta, also known as the Little Vietnam in Sydney.

Crested Shrike-tit - male

Day 9 - Sydney

Mike offered to bird with us for our final morning in Sydney before our flight in the afternoon. One of the bird that we haven't seen properly (although I did see a few flying over as we were driving along) was the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo. While not a rare bird, they can be tricky to track down when you want to find it. Mike suggested us head over to Marouba Beach, just because he knew someone reported some there just the day before. At the car park we saw a few Australian Figbirds, males of race vieilloti with greyish throat.

Australian Figbird - female

Australian Figbird - male race vieilloti

We walked along the coastal footpath without seeing all that much, Pied Currawongs were flying around. The most 'interesting' bird was probably a few Red-whiskered Bulbul! A familiar bird to us and one I did not expect to see in Sydney, they are of course non-native here. Seeing there were not many birds around, we walked back towards the carpark, along the way we saw an Elegant Snake-eyed Skink.

Pied Currawong

Red-whiskered Bulbul - very familiar species to us

Elegant Snake-eyed Skink

Near the carpark there were a lot of common park birds, such as Noisy Mynas and Australian Magpies, both I have not taken a single photo this entire trip until now.

Noisy Miner

Australian Magpie

A big flock of Little Corellas were feeding on the lawns and the trees, allowing for close approach.

Little Corella

Having thought we failed to locate the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, we decided to head to Centennial Park next, as Mike drove his own car, we went separately. As we just got out of the car park, we received a call from Mike that he located the Cockatoos! We immediately circled back and to our surprise they were just feeding next to the car park, on a few small Banksia trees at touching distance! They were completely unbothered by people, and we got excellent views of them.

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo - male

With our biggest target of the morning achieved, we got to Centennial Park hoping to add the Black Swan onto our trip list, as we for some reason have not seen any during our trip. This was also our last chance to take some photos of the common birds around Sydney. At the ponds there were plenty of Grey Teals and several Hardheads.

Grey Teal

Hardhead - female

Crested Pigeons are very common in Australia, but I haven't taken a single photo during this trip. They are actually quite a good looking species and probably deserve a bit more attention.

Crested Pigeon

At the large pond there were plenty of Australian Ibis, another 'trash' bird that most people ignore. And of course, there were many Black Swans, all asking to be photographed!

Australian Ibis

Black Swan

Our final bird was a Grey Butcherbird near the cafe, where we bought a few cold drinks, sat down and had a few laughs with Mike before saying goodbye to him. It was very nice to be able to meet up and have a bit of time birding together, hopefully it won't be too long until we meet again.

Grey Butcherbird

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the airport, where we got the late afternoon plane back to Hong Kong, arriving at around 9:45pm. All in all, I think this trip was quite successful, as we connected with most of our main targets, although there were a few I thought we may see but didn't, such as Spotted Quail-thrush, Gang-Gang Cockatoo, White-eared Honeyeater, White-fronted Chat, Beautiful Firetail and Diamond Firetail. There were also a lot of birds which were surprises for me, such as Square-tailed Kite, Pink Cockatoo, Australian Hobby and White-backed Swallow. With 204 species in just 9 days (8 days of birding effectively), I thought we did fairly well, considering we were mostly self guided! I had over 70 lifers!

It was a shame we didn't have enough time to visit Barren Grounds or the Capertee area, as those two areas are well known for birds, and things like Eastern Bristlebird and Ground Parrots could well be possible. I was probably a bit greedy on the itinerary, wanting to include a lot of inland habitat in such a short trip, but I also think it was nice to sample a lot of different habitats, which gave a good variety throughout the trip. Huge thanks again to Ian and Mike for helping us find some of our targets in Sydney, and for everyone in our group for being such good company. For guiding near Deniliquin, I highly recommend Phil and Robert from Australian Ornithological Services, they were extremely professional, made sure everyone saw the birds and knew which angle works best for photography, they kept us comfortable and were very good at what they do, I can't not imagine finding a Plains Wanderer and many other species if it wasn't for their vast local knowledge. I know for sure this is not the last time I will be birding in Australia, as there are still a lot to see and many areas to explore!

	Species	Scientific Name	Location
1	Emu	Dromaius novaehollandiae	Deniliquin
2	Magpie Goose	Anseranas semipalmata	Fivebough Wetlands
3	Black Swan	Cygnus atratus	Centennial Park
4	Australian Shelduck +	Tadorna tadornoides	Fivebough Wetlands
5	Maned Duck	Chenonetta jubata
6	Pacific Black Duck	Anas superciliosa
7	Grey Teal	Anas gracilis
8	Chestnut Teal	Anas castanea
9	Hardhead	Aythya australis
10	Musk Duck +	Biziura lobata	Lake Wallace
11	Stubble Quail +	Coturnix pectoralis	Deniliquin
12	Rock Dove	Columba livia
13	Spotted Dove	Spilopelia chinensis
14	Brown Cuckoo-Dove	Macropygia phasianella	Royal National Park
15	Common Bronzewing +	Phaps chalcoptera	Griffith, Deniliquin
16	Crested Pigeon	Ocyphaps lophotes
17	Wonga Pigeon	Leucosarcia melanoleuca	Royal National Park
18	Peaceful Dove	Geopelia placida
19	Pacific Koel	Eudynamys orientalis
20	Fan-tailed Cuckoo	Cacomantis flabelliformis	Royal National Park
21	Australian Owlet-nightjar	Aegotheles cristatus	Deniliquin
22	Black-tailed Nativehen +	Tribonyx ventralis	Fivebough Wetlands
23	Australian Crake +	Porzana fluminea	Fivebough Wetlands
24	Dusky Moorhen	Gallinula tenebrosa
25	Eurasian Coot	Fulica atra
26	Australasian Swamphen	Porphyrio melanotus
27	Pied Stilt	Himantopus leucocephalus	Fivebough Wetlands
28	Pacific Golden Plover	Pluvialis fulva	Long Reef
29	Black-fronted Dotterel	Thinornis melanops	Chiltern
30	Banded Lapwing +	Vanellus tricolor	Deniliquin
31	Masked Lapwing	Vanellus miles
32	Red-kneed Dotterel	Erythrogonys cinctus	Fivebough Wetlands
33	Plains-wanderer +	Pedionomus torquatus	Deniliquin
34	Latham's Snipe +	Gallinago hardwickii	Chiltern
35	Grey-tailed Tattler	Tringa brevipes	Long Reef
36	Marsh Sandpiper	Tringa stagnatilis	Long Reef
37	Ruddy Turnstone	Arenaria interpres	Long Reef
38	Sharp-tailed Sandpiper	Calidris acuminata	Long Reef
39	Red-necked Stint	Calidris ruficollis	Long Reef
40	Little Buttonquail +	Turnix velox	Deniliquin
41	Silver Gull	Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae
42	Caspian Tern	Hydroprogne caspia	Long Reef
43	Great Crested Tern	Thalasseus bergii	Long Reef
44	Australasian Grebe	Tachybaptus novaehollandiae
45	Hoary-headed Grebe +	Poliocephalus poliocephalus	Deniliquin
46	Great Crested Grebe	Podiceps cristatus	Lake Wallace
47	Black-browed Albatross +	Thalassarche melanophris	Long Reef
48	Short-tailed Shearwater	Ardenna tenuirostris	Long Reef
49	Australasian Gannet +	Morus serrator	Long Reef
50	Australasian Darter	Anhinga novaehollandiae
51	Little Pied Cormorant	Microcarbo melanoleucos
52	Great Cormorant	Phalacrocorax carbo
53	Little Black Cormorant	Phalacrocorax sulcirostris
54	Pied Cormorant	Phalacrocorax varius
55	Australian Ibis	Threskiornis molucca
56	Straw-necked Ibis	Threskiornis spinicollis
57	Royal Spoonbill	Platalea regia	Deniliquin
58	Yellow-billed Spoonbill	Platalea flavipes	Wagga Wagga, Deniliquin
59	White-faced Heron	Egretta novaehollandiae
60	Eastern Cattle-Egret	Ardea coromanda
61	Pacific Heron	Ardea pacifica
62	Great White Egret	Ardea alba
63	Australian Pelican	Pelecanus conspicillatus
64	Osprey	Pandion haliaetus	Long Reef
65	Black-shouldered Kite	Elanus axillaris
66	Square-tailed Kite +	Lophoictinia isura	Murray Valley National Park
67	Wedge-tailed Eagle	Aquila audax	Deniliquin
68	Brown Goshawk	Tachyspiza fasciata	Royal National Park
69	Swamp Harrier	Circus approximans	Fivebough Wetlands, Deniliquin
70	Black Kite	Milvus migrans
71	Whistling Kite	Haliastur sphenurus
72	White-bellied Sea-Eagle	Icthyophaga leucogaster
73	Powerful Owl +	Ninox strenua	Sydney
74	Australian Boobook +	Ninox boobook	Sydney
75	Rainbow Bee-eater	Merops ornatus
76	Azure Kingfisher	Ceyx azureus	Royal National Park
77	Laughing Kookaburra	Dacelo novaeguineae
78	Sacred Kingfisher	Todiramphus sanctus
79	Dollarbird	Eurystomus orientalis
80	Nankeen Kestrel	Falco cenchroides
81	Australian Hobby +	Falco longipennis	Deniliquin
82	Brown Falcon	Falco berigora
83	Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo +	Zanda funerea	Maroubra Beach
84	Cockatiel	Nymphicus hollandicus	Cocopara National Park
85	Galah	Eolophus roseicapilla
86	Pink Cockatoo +	Cacatua leadbeateri	Cocopara National Park
87	Little Corella +	Cacatua sanguinea
88	Long-billed Corella	Cacatua tenuirostris	Deniliquin
89	Sulphur-crested Cockatoo	Cacatua galerita
90	Superb Parrot +	Polytelis swainsonii	Wagga Wagga, Deniliquin, Chiltern
91	Australian King-Parrot	Alisterus scapularis	Royal National Park
92	Turquoise Parrot +	Neophema pulchella	Chiltern
93	Australian Ringneck +	Barnardius zonarius	Coleambally
94	Crimson Rosella	Platycercus elegans
95	Eastern Rosella +	Platycercus eximius
96	Greater Bluebonnet +	Northiella haematogaster	Deniliquin
97	Red-rumped Parrot	Psephotus haematonotus
98	Mulga Parrot +	Psephotellus varius	Cocopara National Park
99	Little Lorikeet	Psitteuteles pusillus	Chiltern
100	Rainbow Lorikeet	Trichoglossus moluccanus
101	Superb Lyrebird +	Menura novaehollandiae	Royal National Park, Mt York
102	Green Catbird	Ailuroedus crassirostris	Royal National Park
103	Satin Bowerbird	Ptilonorhynchus violaceus	Royal National Park
104	White-throated Treecreeper	Cormobates leucophaea
105	Brown Treecreeper +	Climacteris picumnus	Deniliquin
106	Southern Emuwren +	Stipiturus malachurus	Maddens Plains
107	Purple-backed Fairywren +	Malurus assimilis	Griffith
108	Variegated Fairywren	Malurus lamberti	Sydney, Royal National Park
109	Splendid Fairywren +	Malurus splendens	Cocopara National Park
110	Superb Fairywren	Malurus cyaneus
111	White-winged Fairywren +	Malurus leucopterus	Deniliquin
112	Eastern Spinebill	Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris
113	Lewin's Honeyeater	Meliphaga lewinii	Royal National Park
114	Yellow-tufted Honeyeater +	Lichenostomus melanops	Chiltern
115	Noisy Miner	Manorina melanocephala
116	Yellow-throated Miner +	Manorina flavigula	Griffith
117	Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater +	Acanthagenys rufogularis	Griffith, Deniliquin
118	Little Wattlebird	Anthochaera chrysoptera
119	Red Wattlebird +	Anthochaera carunculata
120	Singing Honeyeater +	Gavicalis virescens	Deniliquin
121	White-plumed Honeyeater +	Ptilotula penicillata
122	Fuscous Honeyeater +	Ptilotula fusca	Chiltern
123	New Holland Honeyeater +	Phylidonyris novaehollandiae	Royal National Park
124	Blue-faced Honeyeater	Entomyzon cyanotis
125	Brown-headed Honeyeater +	Melithreptus brevirostris
126	Black-chinned Honeyeater +	Melithreptus gularis	Chiltern
127	Striped Honeyeater +	Plectorhyncha lanceolata	Cocopara National Park, Griffith
128	Painted Honeyeater +	Grantiella picta	Griffith
129	Little Friarbird	Philemon citreogularis	Griffith
130	Noisy Friarbird	Philemon corniculatus
131	Spotted Pardalote	Pardalotus punctatus
132	Striated Pardalote	Pardalotus striatus
133	Speckled Warbler	Pyrrholaemus sagittatus	Cocopara National Park
134	Weebill +	Smicrornis brevirostris	Griffith
135	Rockwarbler +	Origma solitaria	Mt York
136	White-browed Scrubwren	Sericornis frontalis
137	Southern Whiteface +	Aphelocephala leucopsis	Griffith
138	Yellow-rumped Thornbill +	Acanthiza chrysorrhoa	Murray Valley National Park
139	Yellow Thornbill +	Acanthiza nana
140	Striated Thornbill +	Acanthiza lineata
141	Inland Thornbill +	Acanthiza apicalis	Cocopara National Park
142	Brown Thornbill	Acanthiza pusilla
143	Chestnut-rumped Thornbill +	Acanthiza uropygialis
144	Buff-rumped Thornbill +	Acanthiza reguloides
145	Brown Gerygone	Gerygone mouki
146	Western Gerygone +	Gerygone fusca	Cocopara National Park
147	Grey-crowned Babbler	Pomatostomus temporalis	Cocopara National Park
148	White-browed Babbler +	Pomatostomus superciliosus	Cocopara National Park
149	Black-faced Cuckooshrike	Coracina novaehollandiae
150	White-winged Triller +	Lalage tricolor	Cocopara National Park, Deniliquin
151	Varied Sittella	Daphoenositta chrysoptera	Mt York
152	Eastern Whipbird	Psophodes olivaceus	Royal National Park
153	Eastern Shrike-tit	Falcunculus frontatus	Murray Valley National Park, Chiltern
154	Grey Shrikethrush	Colluricincla harmonica
155	Golden Whistler	Pachycephala pectoralis
156	Rufous Whistler	Pachycephala rufiventris
157	Olive-backed Oriole	Oriolus sagittatus
158	Australasian Figbird	Sphecotheres vieilloti	Sydney
159	White-breasted Woodswallow	Artamus leucorynchus
160	Masked Woodswallow +	Artamus personatus	Deniliquin
161	White-browed Woodswallow +	Artamus superciliosus	Deniliquin
162	Black-faced Woodswallow +	Artamus cinereus	Deniliquin
163	Dusky Woodswallow +	Artamus cyanopterus	Murray Valley National Park, Chiltern
164	Grey Butcherbird	Cracticus torquatus
165	Pied Butcherbird	Cracticus nigrogularis
166	Australian Magpie	Gymnorhina tibicen
167	Pied Currawong	Strepera graculina
168	Willie-wagtail	Rhipidura leucophrys
169	Australian Rufous Fantail	Rhipidura rufifrons	Royal National Park
170	Grey Fantail	Rhipidura albiscapa
171	Black-faced Monarch	Monarcha melanopsis	Royal National Park
172	Magpie-lark	Grallina cyanoleuca
173	Leaden Flycatcher +	Myiagra rubecula	Mt York
174	Satin Flycatcher +	Myiagra cyanoleuca	Chiltern
175	Restless Flycatcher +	Myiagra inquieta	Chiltern
176	White-winged Chough +	Corcorax melanorhamphos
177	Apostlebird +	Struthidea cinerea	Cocopara National Park
178	Australian Raven +	Corvus coronoides
179	Little Raven +	Corvus mellori
180	Red-capped Robin +	Petroica goodenovii	Cocopara National Park
181	Scarlet Robin +	Petroica boodang	Deniliquin
182	Jacky-winter +	Microeca fascinans	Deniliquin, Chiltern
183	Hooded Robin +	Melanodryas cucullata	Deniliquin
184	Eastern Yellow Robin	Eopsaltria australis
185	Golden-headed Cisticola	Cisticola exilis
186	Australian Reed Warbler +	Acrocephalus australis
187	Little Grassbird +	Poodytes gramineus	Fivebough Wetlands
188	Brown Songlark +	Cincloramphus cruralis	Deniliquin
189	Rufous Songlark +	Cincloramphus mathewsi	Wagga Wagga, Deniliquin
190	White-backed Swallow +	Cheramoeca leucosterna	Deniliquin
191	Welcome Swallow	Hirundo neoxena
192	Fairy Martin	Petrochelidon ariel
193	Red-whiskered Bulbul	Pycnonotus jocosus
194	Silvereye	Zosterops lateralis
195	Common Starling	Sturnus vulgaris
196	Common Myna	Acridotheres tristis
197	Bassian Thrush +	Zoothera lunulata	Royal National Park
198	Eurasian Blackbird	Turdus merula
199	Mistletoebird	Dicaeum hirundinaceum	Deniliquin
200	Red-browed Firetail	Neochmia temporalis
201	Zebra Finch	Taeniopygia guttata
202	House Sparrow	Passer domesticus
203	Australian Pipit +	Anthus australis	Deniliquin
204	European Goldfinch	Carduelis carduelis