Tai Po Kau - Woodpeckers and More

Bay Woodpecker - star bird of the day

I received a very sudden request for a guided tour for a birder from the US around Hong Kong last Saturday. The most obvious place to start the day off and as an introduction to the forest birds of Hong Kong was at Tai Po Kau. I always explain to visitors that this is our prime forest site, but historically this forest is still very new while we are only starting to get a few more forest dependant species back in the last few decades or so. One of those species that we always aim for but by no means a guarantee species is no doubt the Bay Woodpecker, where we will most often hear but not see, even when we do see them it will likely be a fly by view at most. We were in for a treat that day, more of that later.

We started our morning at Tai Po Kau Park, always good to get some key species here early on. First bird seen was a leucogenis Ashy Drongo perched on the tree top. A small bird wave with Silver-eared Mesias, Scarlet Minivets, Grey-chinned Minivets, Black-winged Cuckooshrikes and Yellow-cheeked Tits were good appetisers. The best bird found there was a single Dollarbird that perched on a tree in the distant, first for me this autumn.

Ashy Drongo - leucogenis

Black-winged Cuckooshrike - male

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

Dollarbird

We headed up towards the reserve once it got brighter. A Crested Serpent Eagle perched by the roadside was more then welcoming, it allowed us to get pretty close and seemed quite at ease by ours and other hikers presence. Not every day do we get to observe this magnificent raptor for as long as we wanted.

Crested Serpent Eagle

A bit of "Action"...

There weren't that many birds once we got to the trails, though we still managed some commoner species such as Fork-tailed Sunbirds, Mountain Tailorbirds, Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers, Chestnut Bulbuls and a Pygmy Wren Babbler which showed only very briefly. We got to Picnic Area 2 and I investigated some movements at the far end, yielding a small bird wave with mainly common species, although there were a pair of White-bellied Epornis which showed extremely well.

Mountain Tailorbird

White-bellied Epornis

Suddenly, I heard the call of the Bay Woodpecker. THAT would be a nice bird to see, I said to myself. I quickly played a burst of playback and waited and received a minute of silence. Just as I thought it wouldn't really come to us, a pair of large reddish brown woodpeckers flew over our heads and landed on a nearby tree! The pair circled around us a few more times, gave me the best look of this species in Hong Kong as I ever had! Despite their numbers increasing in recent years, they are still not an easy bird to see and remains to be a scarce resident. I have not seen them in Hong Kong for a long while, and it's nice to get a reminder that this great looking Woodpecker is now part of our native avifauna. Awesome!

Bay Woodpecker - male

Bay Woodpecker - female without the red nape patch

Finally, while on the way back down we got a great looking male Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker feeding on a low tree, again showing as well as any flowerpecker could! A great little bird to end the morning at Tai Po Kau. Sometimes even seeing a common bird well can be a high note.

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker - male

A Duck, a Crane and a Duck!

Mandarin Duck - my best bird in 2017...so far!

Nathan Goldberg, a student studying at Cornell University contacted me months ago about visiting Hong Kong, this Saturday we finally got together for a day of birding. It was still dark when I picked him up from Kowloon and we drove straight to Tai Po Kau Park. This had became one of my favourite spot to start off a day's birding, especially with the ficus tree in fruit at the moment. We waited around the tree and Nathan got acclimated to the sounds of the forest in Hong Kong, we were of course also there for the Great Barbet; which showed very well, evidently the Barbets had became a local twitch for local birders and photographers alike, there were about 30 people below the tree by the time we leave.

Great Barbet - still plenty of food to go around

We started Tai Po Kau pretty well, connecting with a Pygmy Wren Babbler on the way up after 10 minutes of trying, the skulker gave fairly good views before melting back into the undergrowth. As Nathan managed to get a Mai Po permit for the day, we thought we would plough through Tai Po Kau quickly so we get enough time for the ramsar site in the afternoon. Things went pretty good for the short amount of time we were there, we hit our first mixed flock even before we got to the trail, White-bellied Epornis came close for a good look. The beautiful Silver-eared Mesias were as eye-catching as ever, a flock of these gave very good views.

White-bellied Epornis

Silver-eared Mesia

We encountered a few more feeding flocks when we got to the trail, connecting with nearly all of the "usual suspects" in Tai Po Kau. This itself is in fact not an easy task nowadays, as flocks are now much further apart and birds more disperse due to improvement of habitats elsewhere. Huet's Fulvettas showed well, along with Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers, a male Yellow-cheeked Tits at close range stole the show, a few Mountain Bulbuls gave fairly good views as we cleaned up on the local Bulbuls! Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers were again quite active and showed extremely well.

Huet's Fulvetta

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

Mountain Bulbul - one of the more "difficult" local bulbul species

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

On our way out I checked the Rhodoleia tree which had just started flowering, surely enough a pair of Orange-bellied Leafbirds were there. They perched motionlessly which made them difficult to detect at first, but you simply cannot take your eyes off once you locked onto them. This being one of Nathan's target bird here ended our Tai Po Kau visit perfectly.

Orange-bellied Leafbird - male

We decided to go for an early lunch before heading into Mai Po, before that we drove to Siu Lek Yuen close-by to check for a Mandarin Duck that was spotted the day before. Although I have seen them before I never seems to have much luck with this Hong Kong rarity in recent years. We arrived at the spot where a group of photographers were already there, but they didn't have the bird in view. So, we decided to walk along the river to see if we can spot the duck somewhere down stream. As we were walking Nathan suddenly exclaimed that he found the bird sitting along the bank! Mean while I was looking at the completely wrong distance, as Nathan spotted the duck nearly 300 meters away from where we were standing! Credits to him, and I probably need to get my eyes checked pretty soon...

Mandarin Duck - it's far, but definitely recognisable!

We arrived at Mai Po just past noon and Nathan got his permit without much trouble. Things started off slowly, but a few Plain Prinias were welcoming sight, a bit of pishing got a group very excited. Strangely enough they seems to be the very few birds in Hong Kong that reacts well to pishing.

Plain Prinia - pisssshhhh

We tried locating any Yellow Bitterns from the Education Centre but came up empty handed, although a flock of confiding Chinese Grosbeaks just outside were more then enough to make up for that.

Chinese Grosbeak - male top, female bottom

We reached pond 16/17 soon, hoping to find the Siberian Crane that had been around there lately, sure enough that was pretty much the first bird we saw as we sat down! Views were not great to begin with as the large bird stayed behind the reeds, but it later came out to the open for us to indulge spectacular views of this rare crane. It was awesome to be able to connect with this bird, and no doubt one of Nathan's target bird of this trip, good to have this species on my 2017 list as well!

Siberian Crane - the crown jewel of Mai Po right now

Another globally rare species at the scrape was of course Black-faced Spoonbills. They are in fact quite common in Hong Kong during winter, and it's easy for us to forget just how endangered they are still. Their numbers dropped below a thousand individuals back in 1980s, fortunately their numbers seems to be increasing again and the global population now estimated at around 3,000 individuals world wide. Good views of a few close to the bird hide was another highlight.

Black-faced Spoonbill

Other more common birds around...A few Garganeys were nice addition to our day list, White Wagtails showed well next to the hide, and an Eastern Buzzard flushed many of the ducks but failed to grab any. A Peregrine Falcon also tried for a few avocets at the far end of the scrape but seems to have failed.

Garganey

White Wagtail - leucopsis

Eastern Buzzard

We headed out to the boardwalk just in time before the tide came in. Good timing as well as the Black-capped Kingfisher came out and perched on one of the "kingfisher pole" for a good fifteen minutes or so for us to enjoy. (Sorry Jeff...if you're reading this!)

Black-capped Kingfisher - our most "elusive" of the four local Kingfishers

The tide came in a little bit earlier then anticipated, but in a rather disappointing fashion as most of the waders were either not in range or just not there! I scanned hard for any Nordmann's Greenshanks within a flock of Common Greenshanks without much success. Same went with Far-eastern Curlew which kind of broke my "there's always one in there" rule...A female Eastern Marsh Harrier came and flushed the waders a few times, but despite shifting positions we got very few new waders. A few Black-faced Spoonbills were feeding very close to the hide though. Matters were made worst by a large group of WWF tour filling every window space within the hide...Locating a few Saunder's Gull at the far end of the bay kind of made up for the lack of waders.

The disappointing flock of Greenshanks...

Eastern Marsh Harrier - flushing all the ducks

Black-faced Spoonbill

But, with Siberian Crane on our day list, we couldn't really complain about anything. On our way out we stopped by a few fish ponds to enjoy a flyby Black Kite and a perched White-breasted Kingfisher, which sums up our day perfectly as that completes our local kingfisher collection of the day!

Black Kite

White-throated Kingfisher

Since I only managed a crappy photo of the Mandarin Duck the day before, I decided to try for the duck again Sunday morning with my Dad. We got to Siu Lek Yuen just past 8:30am and didn't have much luck. The bird was not seen by anyone, everyone was looking for the bird along the river.

By 9:30am we thought that it was gone and headed back towards the car park, as I got to the bridge next to the car park I noticed a bird lurking beneath it in the shadows. Surely that's a Mandarin Duck! We quickly called a few birders back as they were about to leave and everyone got a pretty good look at the duck resting just below the bridge. It later started venturing out into the open and we ended up with a stunning view of the bird in great lighting! It's a shame this male is in moult...we can only hope that it sticks around a few more weeks and moult into the glorious drake that it can be!

Mandarin Duck - eclipse drake, and hopefully in full plumage soon!

Birding Between Two Years

Yellow-cheeked Tit - one of Tai Po Kau's stunning residents

Year end always seems to be exciting for birds, and somehow it feels like if you end it well, you will start it well. 2016 had been an interesting year in terms of birds, there were quite a few birds that had been very high on my wish list for years, finally getting them was exciting and made this year all that more memorable. I will go back to review the past year in another post...

31st of December was my last birding day in 2016, Hoiling and I decided to give Tai Po Kau one last visit. Things started off pretty slowly, we didn't really encounter any proper viewable feeding flocks until we got to the AFCD warden's quarters. The first bird that greeted us was none other then the common Oriental Magpie Robin, a species I usually take little notice of, but since this handsome guy perched very still I felt bad not to take a photo.

Oriental Magpie Robin - handsome male

The feeding flock was quite high up, there were some warblers, a Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher and I spotted a single Verditer Flycatcher, but none really gave good views. A female Fork-tailed Sunbird was the only bird that gave a decent look. on the other side of the road however, a Crested Goshawk perched silently on a bare tree, seems to be enjoying the early morning sun, it gave all the birds a good fright later when it flew off.

Fork-tailed Sunbird - female

Crested Goshawk

Things got better afterwards, we encountered quite a few feeding flocks and nearly all the birds gave excellent views for as long as we wanted! Mainly the usual suspects, with exception of the Goodson's Leaf Warbler which gave a fairly good view even of it's crown stripe, the Eastern Crowned Warbler was however much less obliging and only gave a brief look. Other more common birds such as Blue-winged Minla also gave very close views, the Yellow-cheeked Tits were especially entertaining as they carefully check the branches throughly for insects. Velvet-fronted Nuthatches were again everywhere.

Goodson's Leaf Warbler - one of the most easily recognisable leaf warblers in HK

Blue-winged Minla

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

The Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers were again very cooperative. I've had so much luck with them lately after many years failing to get any decent photos! Quite a few of them were seen with a large feeding flock, again coming in extremely close. It's always so amazing to be able to get so close to these brilliant looking birds.

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

Other then brilliant looking birds, we also got some pretty good looking butterflies, including an uncommon Painted Jezebel, a Common Mapwing which is one of my all time favourite butterflies, and a Purple Sapphire.

Painted Jezebel

Common Mapwing

Purple Sapphire

In the afternoon, my father joined me at San Tin to look for the recently found Booted Warbler, still an absolute mega rarity in Hong Kong after last year's bird. It wasn't long before we were looking at this rare vagrant. I saw the birds from Mai Po last year but this was a lifer for my father, we ended the day with a beautiful sunset over Lok Ma Chau, a great way to end 2016!

Booted Warbler

On 2nd of January my father and I met with Jeff Lauffer; a visiting birder from the USA, to try for a few target birds he is still missing on his Hong Kong trip before he fly home. At 7am we headed into She Shan near Lam Tsuen to try our luck early morning. The first bird we saw was a pair of brilliant looking Common Kingfishers over the river. Also on the river was a rather confiding Green Sandpiper, it finally flew off when it had enough of us talking about it.

Common Kingfisher - female

Green Sandpiper

The long grass in the area is traditionally a great area for Bright-capped Cisticolas, and very soon we heard one calling in the grass, but this one did not respond much to the recording and remained largely out of sight. The Plain Prinias though were very active and were perching right out in the open. Scaly-breasted Munias were also present. We also had at least 6 or 7 calling Siberian Rubythroats in the grass, but only one gave us a glimpse.

Plain Prinia

Scaly-breasted Munia

We heard many of the species we had already seen at Tai Po Kau the other day, in addition we got Hair-crested Drongos perched in a tree nearby, managed to get a rather "artistic" shot of the bird. A few Eurasian Magpies also perched on top of trees in early morning. We heard the Lesser Coucal that Jeff needed, but the bird did not show, we still considered that to be lucky as they don't usually call often at this time of the year. We later found an Asian Brown Flycatcher at Golden Triangle which was also a target bird for Jeff.

Hair-crested Drongo

Eurasian Magpie

We gave Shek Kong Airfield a try next. Many Yellow-browed Warblers around but overall a bit quiet, there are no reports of Common Rosefinches yet, probably not quite cold enough. A tree full of mistletoe gave us fairly good views of a female Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, we even observed the female "spreading" the mistletoe seeds with her rear end. We did manage to find two Chinese Grosbeaks, one of them perched very still for a good look. The best bird there though was probably a single Pale Thrush, easily recognisable with the two white spots on the tail.

Yellow-browed Warbler

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker - female

Chinese Grosbeak - male

We gave San Tin a go next, hoping to get the Booted Warbler. The bird was however a no show after we waited for over half an hour, we got another of Jeff's target bird as we waited though; a Greater Spotted Eagle, soaring along the horizon of Shenzhen very far away. The ID was conclusive when just a few minutes later we spotted another eagle along the same area, but this time a much larger Imperial Eagle, with much longer tail and a bright head. Seeing that we were having no luck despite the many eyes at the Booted Warbler spot, we decided to go for lunch before we headed into Lok Ma Chau for a quick look. Lok Ma Chau only added a few common species to our day list, most notably two Purple Herons which was a first for me in this area, plus a flock of Eurasian Teals that were strangely diving like Tufted Ducks, a behaviour we have never seen nor heard...

Purple Heron - a first for me at Lok Ma Chau

Long Valley was next, we mainly hoped to find the Citrine Wagtail which was high on Jeff's wish list. Things started off slowly with a funny looking Red-eared Slider...Common Snipes were in quite good numbers as well, although we could not find any Pin-tailed Amongst them. Good news was that I managed to relocate the Painted Snipe on another pond, but they were again very very skulking and allowed only some very obscured views, at least I know where they are now!

Red-eared Slider

Common Snipe

The usual suspects were there, including many White-rumped Munias. A few Little Buntings were again on their favourite tree, they weren't doing much and mainly just sat there the whole time we were at Long Valley. The confiding Cattle Egrets had became a regular sight at Long Valley lately. We also managed to find a single Buff-bellied Pipit amongst the flock of Red-throated.

White-rumped Munia

Little Bunting

Cattle Egret

Buff-bellied Pipit

The Citrine Wagtail was not at it's "usual" spot, just as we thought we won't have any luck finding it, I spotted one in amongst a flock of Eastern Yellow Wagtails on the Arrowhead field! The bird provided amazing views for the next couple of minutes, allowing us to really enjoy all it's diagnostic features! An exciting moment for us all, and I was so glad Jeff got this lifer finally. The bird later perched along with an Eastern Yellow Wagtail with the same pose, giving a very good "comparison shot".

Citrine Wagtail - finding the bird was one of the great moments of the day!

Eastern Yellow Wagtail - taivana

To end our day, we decided to give the Booted Warbler one last try. A lot of birders were waiting for the bird when we arrived at San Tin. They were however having no luck...apparently the bird appeared only once at 1pm before disappearing again for the next few hours! We waited for around thirty minutes, locking our bins onto pretty much every warbler that foraged along the trees. Suddenly, someone spotted the warbler dropping down into the bushes next to the fishpond. We all followed and soon had some obscured but identifiable views of the warbler, the bird was kind enough to perch and preen at a single spot allowing us to get a good look, making this Jeff's 4th lifer that day! And what a bird to end our first day of birding in 2017!

Booted Warbler - could not have asked for a better bird to end the day with!