Early Spring with Wintering Birds

Spring is now just around the corner, with temperature warming up slightly and more humidity in the air, it certainly feels like winter is ending soon. Although, many of our wintering birds are still present, best of the bunch for me was probably the White-spectacled Warbler, which showed well again for one day, and disappeared yet again for many visits afterwards.

White-spectacled Warbler

The bird waves at Tai Po Kau have been extremely inconsistent, and very hard to locate this winter. It takes quite a few visit to get all the 'usual suspects', here are a selection of some shots I took this month.

Black-throated Laughingthrush

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Asian Tit - another name change for this common species

Yellow-cheeked Tit - female

Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler

Scarlet Minivet - male

Black-winged Cuckooshrike

Blue Whistling Thrush

I have not really taken that many good photos Mountain Tailorbirds, mainly because they often skulk around the canopy and usually within lots of thin vines. Was lucky that one decided to come down to eye-level, allowing me to take a few photos, and this one was by far the best I got.

Mountain Tailorbird

Pygmy Cupwings are tough birds to see, but with a bit of luck and patience, it is possible to get some good photos in the wild, here is a relatively cooperative one that I bumped into.

Pygmy Cupwing

Crested Serpent Eagle is probably one of the highlight of most visit to Tai Po Kau, the one along the access road is often seen and often perch up for photos. An Crested Honey Buzzard is perhaps the best raptor that I found, while a scarce passage migrant, it is even rarer in winter.

Crested Serpent Eagle

Crested Honey Buzzard

The Asian Barred Owlet have been calling regularly lately, and occasionally you would see it, being mobbed by a dozen of birds.

Asian Barred Owlet

With the Rhodolea tree now coming to the end of its bloom, the nectar loving birds such as Orange-bellied Leafbirds and Fork-tailed Sunbirds move onto other food source such as Coral Tree or the Sleeping Hibiscus. Larger birds are attracted to the sweet nectar of Bombax Tree, birds such as Great Barbets and Red-billed Blue Magpies are frequent visitors to these trees.

Orange-bellied Leafbird - male

Fork-tailed Sunbird - male

Great Barbet

Red-billed Blue Magpie

Over at Shek Kong Catchwater some birds remain, such as Black Bulbuls and Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, both regularly showing there. Speckled Piculet can also be seen there on some visits.

Black Bulbul

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

Speckled Piculet

Crested Goshawk is fairly common along the catch water, here is an adult and a juvenile, both equally majestic looking!

Crested Goshawk - adult

Crested Goshawk - juvenile

Mai Po is still arguably the prime birding site in Hong Kong, and for good reasons. The wintering Oriental Storks have been most consistently seen here, and seeing 22 together on the scrape was quite a sight!

Oriental Stork

Black-faced Spoonbill of course is still a major attraction here for visiting birders, at Mai Po there is usually no shortage of this endangered species.

Black-faced Spoonbill

Chinese Penduline Tit is another star bird here, and quite often seen along the reedbeds here. Eurasian Wryneck is a fairly uncommon species in Hong Kong, in Mai Po they are sometimes seen, although bumping into one requires quite a lot of luck. White-bellied Eagle is another species that you just chance upon, juveniles sometimes comes through Deep Bay and you may just find one drifting around the reserve.

Chinese Penduline Tit

Eurasian Wryneck

White-bellied Sea Eagle & Black Kite

Birds are not the only interesting thing to see in Mai Po, two resident Burmese Pythons have been showing exceptionally well along the access boardwalk, the smaller one can be quite friendly and stay very still even when you approach it.

Burmese Python

Over at Long Valley, star bird is of course the Greater Painted Snipe, which we often find, although photographing them can still be a challenge. A female Bluethroat have also been showing fairly well, I had it perch up on the paddies on a few occasions.

Greater Painted Snipe - male

Bluethroat - female

Raptors such as Black-winged Kite and Besra patrol the area here diligently, I sometimes see them with prey in their talons, most often Scaly-breasted Munias.

Black-winged Kite

Besra

A few Garganeys have been staying at Long Valley for a good couple of months, but only recently did the male finally moulted into the breeding plumage, which attracted a lot of photographers, I don't blame them as male Garganeys are really quite good looking.

Garganey

Asian Koels are now in song, which definitely tells us spring is upon us, their familiar call will be the constant background noise in the coming few months!

Asian Koel