Autumn Rarity - Red-backed Shrike

Red-backed Shrike - healthy looking juvenile

Since I said that no major rarities had turned up in my last blog post, a Red-backed Shrike was reported at Long Valley on Saturday morning. This mega rarity had turned up six times in Hong Kong, first recorded in 2008. I've missed all the previous records for whatever reason and have been awaiting my turn. So, as soon as I saw the news I made a quick dash to Long Valley. Luckily, the bird was very stable, and I found the bird soon after I arrived at the reported site. The juvenile showed well and was not at all shy, it even flew towards me at one point and landed just 3 metres from me, where it caught itself a juicy Mole Cricket. I was able to get some good shots before it flew back up to it's favourite perch.

Red-backed Shrike - Mole Crickets buffet!

I observed the bird for a good two hours, all the while it went back and forth, collecting various prety items, over half of which were Mole Crickets, but it also caught two fairly good sized centipedes on two occasions. Red-backed Shrike have a very westerly distribution, ranging from Europe to western Asia, they over winter in tropical Africa, these vagrants that turn up in Hong Kong are most likely from western Asia which headed south the wrong way.

Red-backed Shrike - on it's favourite perch of the day

My luck improved slightly at Ho Man Tin, with a very shy juvenile Siberian Blue Robin, not exactly the male that I was hoping for, but nice to see them once again. The Tiger Shrike had eluded me once again, it never seizes to amaze me how well it can hide in such a small area.

Siberian Blue Robin - a very shy juvenile

Other than the uncooperative Pale-legged Leaf Warbler that skulked around without stopping for a good photograph, the many Arctic Warblers were by comparison extremely friendly. Such as this individual, which literally landed right in front of me! It is incredible to think that this tiny bird breeds in the arctic and winter all the way down to tropical South East Asia, what an epic journey that they take each year! Here you see this individual eating a stink bug, trying to fatten itself up before it's southward journey towards Borneo or the Philippines.

Arctic Warbler - friendly individual