Wintering Birds During a Warm Winter

Weather up till mid December was still very warm, with temperature still as high as 30°C on 15th of December. While a cold front is currently passing through Hong Kong, and temperature finally dropping to around 10°C, lots of our usual wintering birds are either missing or in very low numbers. There are still some wintering birds here to remind us what season we are in, such as a pair of lovely Northern Lapwing I saw up close, this is a species I always enjoy seeing, as they are simply stunning birds!

Northern Lapwing

The Grey-headed Lapwings are still showing well at Kam Tin, although not always roosting as close as I want them to be, but seeing them is usually not much of a problem.

Grey-headed Lapwing

At Ma Tso Lung, I found this rather interesting looking White Wagtail, it is obviously a hybrid between two subspecies, my guess is leucopsis x alboides, as it shows the slight mask, but lacks the darker throat and breast.

White Wagtail - leucopsis x alboides

There are quite a lot of Eastern Yellow Wagtails at the moment, and the single Citrine Wagtail I found earlier is still present at Lok Ma Chau. Other than the obvious C-shaped ear covert, I find another way to tell them apart is by their calls, as Citrine Wagtail have a much softer call compared to the very raspy and harsher call of Eastern Yellow Wagtail.

Eastern Yellow Wagtail - race taivana

Citrine Wagtail

Other birds seen in that general area includes a flock of Azure-winged Magpies, a species that seems to have become a bit less common in the last few years. Barn Swallows were in very good numbers at Ma Tso Lung, up to two Sand Martins still present, but this young Swallow was far more obliging in posing for a photo.

Azure-winged Magpie

Barn Swallow

While Long Valley is still inaccessible, you can look inside from the west side, here I spotted a pair of Greater Painted Snipe while looking in, a species I see far less often now that I cannot get into Long Valley.

Greater Painted Snipe

Over at San Tin, the Daurian Jackdaw is still present occasionally, although it seems to be ranging out slightly from its original location. I finally caught up with the female Pied Harrier that's been frequenting the area, although it did not come very close, it did perch on a dead tree briefly for excellent scope views!

Daurian Jackdaw

Pied Harrier - female

There's not been a lot of new birds arriving at Tai Sang Wai, the 'star' bird at the moment being a lonesome Great Crested Grebe, its been 'performing' quite well and more often than not you can see it sitting on the water or diving around looking for food. we only get Great Crested Grebes visiting fish ponds every so often, so this is quite the treat to be able to see this species up close.

Great Crested Grebe

Wu Kau Tang's still been extremely unproductive, with many usual wintering species missing. I've almost given up on that spot, but thought I would give it a try anyway...the only 'good' bird was a female Fire-breasted Flowerpecker showing off how it disperse the seeds of mistletoes but rubbing its back end on the branch.

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker - female

Over at Luk Keng, other than a lovely Black-capped Kingfisher that was too far for photos, I was pleasantly surprised by a Pacific Reef Egret near the temple, as I've never seen one there before! I usually associate this species with areas with larger boulders, not feeding on the mudflat by mangroves.

Pacific Reef Egret

Tai Po Kau seems to have improved somewhat, with two White-spectacled Warblers seen amongst the larger bird wave, like previous year, one with grey crown and the other with greenish crown. There were also a pleasantly good number of Eastern Crowned Warblers and a few Hartert's Leaf Warblers, although none of them were willing to let me take a proper photo.

White-spectacled Warbler

Asian Stubtail was one of those wintering species which numbers seems to be relatively 'normal', there were quite a lot of them dotted around the reserve, only one of them was friendly enough to stay for a photo. Another wintering bird which still seems pretty common this year is the Asian Brown Flycatcher.

Asian Stubtail

Asian Brown Flycatcher

A very friendly Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler posed nicely for a photo, they are still my favourite babbler in Hong Kong. There were quite a few Black Bulbuls seen at Tai Po Kau, although I am never sure now whether they are residents or wintering individuals.

Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler

Black Bulbul

With the cold front passing through, I am hoping some interesting birds will soon follow...We shall see!