Slaty-legged Crake in the Park

News of a Slaty-legged Crake at Hutchison Park near Hung Hom surfaced a few days ago. My first encounter with this species was many years ago in Kowloon Park, where one turned up and caused quite a lot of excitement amongst the birding community back then. The second time it was at Lai Chi Kok Park, another urban park. These Crakes are not particularly rare in Hong Kong, we get them annually as regular summer visitors and scarce passage migrants, you can sometimes hear them on various hill sides or country parks calling at night. However, seeing one is another matter, they are quiet and very secretive in the forest, moving along the floor without making much noise.

Slaty-legged Crake - a Crake species that seems to favour urban parks

On Tuesday upon hearing the news, I teamed up with Bee Yu to find the bird on Wednesday morning. We met at Hung Hom Station and walked to Hutchison Park, arriving at around 7:30am. A handful of other birders and photographers had already arrived, huddled up in front of the small patch of bushes the bird had been feeding around. Very soon we had our eyes upon the Crake, walking leisurely along the bushes and lawns, only a few feet away from the many passerby whom would have walked past it obliviously if not for the dozens of long lens pointing at it's direction. For the next 45 minutes, the Crake performed very well and was out and about feeding constantly.

This prehistoric looking creature truly looks like an animal straight out from the Jurassic, looking through the viewfinder I swear it could have been a dinosaur, the way it walked and stalked amongst the undergrowth really sets it apart from other "modern" birds. Slaty-legged Crakes are famous for their "tameness" amongst people, this one was no exception, it would feed from one side of the road to the other, walking right by your feet to get to the other side. We were pretty much happy with the images we had by 8:30, so we decided to head for breakfast. In good time as more people arrived to come and see this bird. This bird is likely on migration, I heard they like to travel at night in the cover of darkness, let's hope it will find it's way out of the maze that is the Kowloon Peninsular without much trouble.

Eurasian Hoopoe - a bird we should be thankful for

Eurasian Hoopoe is a very peculiar species, you can even describe them as eccentric looking. Ornithologists have placed it in a family of it's own (if you don't count Madagascar Hoopoe as a full species), which make them one of a kind. Their behaviour and habit is also strange, though commonly seen in supposedly suitable habitats such as farmland or agricultural land, they frequently visit city parks in Hong Kong, making their appearances in a fairly erratic fashion. They were considered sacred to the ancient Egyptians and King of birds by ancient Greeks, while they are capable of secreting a foul smell that resembles rotten meat when threatened at nest, and their fledgelings are fully capable of self-defence by squirting streams of faeces at intruders...All in all, very strange.

Eurasian Hoopoe - the strange and weird

News of a Hoopoe at Tuen Mun Park traveled fast. Though I have seen Hoopoes in Hong Kong on numerous occasions, I have never photographed one before. Therefore, I thought it was justifiable to pop into the park shortly after a day of volunteer bird guiding at Mai Po (I had Greater Spotted Eagle, Imperial Eagle & Great Bittern). The bird have been stable for a few days, apparently had no fear of men; a bird for the lazy or tired. One can argue that a bird like this provides no challenge for a birdwatcher, and you will be right. But sometimes, you need a bird or two like this to balance things out, especially when you are tired of pishing an invisible Reed Warbler out hoping to get a few seconds of clean look.

Google maps view of Tuen Mun Park

The park itself is situated in the middle of Tuen Mun town, now a fairly built up area filled with malls and residential estates. Like many city parks, the Tuen Mun Park provides a bit of green for the residents here. However, many "Mainland Singers" have taken hold in this nice park, where karaoke singing fills the air with out of tune mandarin songs. They were indeed annoying, and while we were there their songs echoes throughout the park...

View of Tuen Mun Park overlooking the new V City residential complex (me in the foreground)

It didn't take long for us to find the bird and the 20 other photographers who were surrounding it. I quickly grabbed a few shots, and the bird put on quite a show. Posing and stretching for as long as everyone wanted, it probably did enjoy the celebrity treatment, considering it will never get this much attention if it's up in North West China where they are abundant.

Eurasian Hoopoe - performing

Although this bird have been stable, nobody should take it for granted. After five minutes of a wonderful show, the bird decided it have had enough of the attention, after a final stretch it simply flew over everyone's head and out of sight. If me and my Dad have been five minutes late, we would have missed the bird for today. So, be thankful when you have a bird in your view finder, because there won't always be a bird there for you to look at. The whole event from walking to the park, finding the bird and to us leaving the park with wonderful photographs took a mere 25 minutes. That's efficient birdwatching for you!

Eurasian Hoopoe - one final stretch before it flew

Postscript: It is to my knowledge that birds like this caused many disputes and controversies in whether people should "twitch" or extensively photograph, it is arguable that the crowd could cause the bird to feed less due to disturbance and may affect it's survival during harsh times after a long migration. I myself keep to a guideline of "short visits" for such showy birds, one reason being there's no point to stay a whole day surrounding the bird as you can take good photographs straight away (plus I don't like the crowd so much), second reason being to keep the disturbance to the minimum. Similar tactics were used by me for the Siberian Thrush at Shing Mun a few years back, I was only there for 15 minutes to take a few photographs and left. So, short and brief is probably the best for both men and bird. No doubt this subject will continue to be controversial in Hong Kong birding scene in the near future.

The Bird Draught - Oasis at Tsing Yi Park

Summer, the quiet season for birders have finally arrived! Other then common resident species and the few breeding summer visitors, things have been pretty quiet lately. Today, me and Long Long went to look for the Yellow Bittern at Tsing Yi Park, a regular summer visitor that have became quite regular in a few urban parks namely Hong Kong Park and Tsing Yi Park. These parks have became true oasis for hungry birders like me!

We arrived just around 2pm, the sun was scorching! We took refuge under shades of a tree next to the lily pond and waited. The dense lily pads have became a little haven for the Bitterns, providing plenty of shelter for these skulking birds.

After half an hour of waiting a Yellow Bittern finally caught our sight, though it didn't stay long and disappeared again into thick foliages. But patience is the key, we waited for a little longer and finally the bird came into full view! It's been a whole year since I last seen any Yellow Bitterns, so it's good to see this old friend again. Their extendable necks crane over the water surface, waiting for any small fishes that swim past, suddenly they will strike with amazing speed and precision! The first bird provided plenty of entertainment for us.

The second bird was chased off by the first bird, but later came back into view. This individual have slightly dark plumage and more prominent markings on it's neck. We wonder whether this could be due to difference in sex or age? We got no conclusive answer, but the second bird gave great views when the first bird hid amongst the lilies.

A long summer awaits, hopefully some unseasonal surprise will turn up this summer.

Jewels in the Park - Emerald Dove and Blue Whistling Thrush

Emerald Dove is one of the prettiest resident dove species you can find in Hong Kong, unlike other species, they prefer secondary forest floors. They have iridescent green wing feathers, hence they're named Emerald. They can be quite skittish and are not easy to see in dense undergrowth. Emerald Dove have a very large range through out South East Asia. There is a good stakeout for this species in Hong Kong, Central Kwai Chung Park have been the most steady site to see this species. Today, I saw two, an adult with a juvenile, however the adult was a lot more alert and took off very quickly once it saw me. The juvenile stayed a bit longer, probably have yet to recognise men as a possible threat.

Emerald Dove

Not far off another jewel of a different colour was busy feeding it's two fledglings. The Blue Whistling Thrush is a common species in Hong Kong, but can sometimes be a bit difficult to see well. Unlike the adult the juvenile does not have any spots. You can often see them fanning their tails next to gullies or streams. Though I regularly see them, I don't always have my camera with me, it's nice to be able to observe this beautiful species at such close range.

Blue Whistling Thrush (Adult) - with iridescent spots.

Blue Whistling Thrush (Juvenile) - they don't carry any spots.

Valentine's Day Birding

Parks are romantic, or so they are in movies. Parks are also good for birds, so they seem in real life. Spent most of today in different parks in Hong Kong, experiencing some of Hong Kong's finest city bird species.

Started my day off at Fa Sam Hang, a hill side village in Shatin, main reason for visiting was for a Verditer Flycatcher that's been frequenting the area. However, waited for over 2 hours with little luck. Saw only common birds including this Magpie Robin and two Crested Serpent Eagle. An interesting species to note were two Little Buntings.

Magpie Robin (female)

Crested Serpent Eagle

Decided to move on to Central Kwai Chung Park, a park right next to the industrial estates of Kwai Chung. This place was made known few years back by the local speciality; Emerald Doves. There are some nice trees in the park which manages to hold quite a few species.

Looking towards Kwai Chung industrial estates

As soon as I entered the park entrance I saw a pair of Scarlet Minivets, a male and a female. They gave great views, but not so great for photographing.

Scarlet Minivets male & female

Further up in the park I encountered common species such as Red-whiskered Bulbuls, Japanese White-eyes, Yellow-browed Warblers, Pallas's Leaf Warblers...a few Grey-backed Thrush were seen but in very dense foliage, a good species was an Ashy Drongo amongst a few bulbuls. This is a regular winter species in Hong Kong, not especially rare but can be quite local.

Ashy Drongo

Yet even further up the hill towards Castle Peak Road, a little bird wave with a bunch of White-eyes brought along a female Black-naped Monarch! A very pleasant surprise indeed to see this wintering species in such urban landscape. Just as the Monarch flew away, a great shadow flew past me and landed right in front of me on a branch. A Crested Goshawk. It was way too close to me, so I couldn't manage a full body shot, but to see such magnificent bird so up close is always a treat.

Black-naped Monarch

Crested Goshawk

Near to the children's playground, a small bird hopped in the low hedges. I looked through my bins and saw a reddish cocked up tail, and what else could it be but a Rufous-tailed Robin. Another pleasant little surprise, this species are more regularly seen in forested areas like Tai Po Kau, I think this was the first time I have seen one in a park. I did saw two Emerald Doves, but they were quite shy and didn't manage to get a shot. Other birds of interest were a pair of Black-throated Laughingthrush, a flock of Silver-eared Mesia and an Asian Stubtail Warbler; which I heard only.

Rufous-tailed Robin

The afternoon I spent a few hours taking a few kids from the Project Care Small Group Home to visit Woh Chai Shan. The main objective was to show them that urban parks such as this can hold quite a few birds too. We wanted to show them birds such as Greater-necklaced Laughingthrush and Brown-chested Jungle-flycatcher; which we saw both with great success, the Flycatcher was particularly cooperative today and perched for nearly 10 minutes allowing amazing scope views. They also enjoyed a bit of free time running about the grassy parkland at the top of the hill.

Greater-necklaced Laughingthrush

Brown-chested Jungle-flycatcher

Brown-chested Jungle-Flycatcher: 2nd Attempt

Heard news on HKBWS that the Brown-chested Jungle-Flycatcher was STILL at Shek Kip Mei the other day, the bird's been at the same location for over a month now, I guess it must be doing well in the little Park at Wo Chai Shan.

After my traumatising experience when looking for this bird last time (loud photographers), the little platform at the location was very much deserted. I guess the photographers have finally gotten bored of this little bird and went on to photograph something else. I waited for some ten minutes, and surely the bird came right up to where I stood. It's still a scruffy looking little bird...I am guessing it still haven't grasp the idea of PREENING.

Brown-chested Jungle-Flycatcher

The thing with Jungle-Flycatcher's that they can be very stationary when they perch, making them a bit harder to find in the forest. But, that's also a good thing when you want to photograph it, because they will stay very still for you until you get the perfect shot!

The Brown-chested Jungle-Flycatcher may look plain, but it's in fact listed as vulnerable with Birdlife International. It's narrow natural range and degrading habitat in China makes it especially vulnerable to any changes in the environment. So, we are lucky to get one of these little chaps here once in a while, let's hope this one grow up soon enough to start breeding!

Japanese White-eye

Other then the Flycatcher, flowering season's amongst us! with many flowers starting to bloom including Coral Tree flowers, which is a common sight in Hong Kong, attracting birds such as Sunbirds and Leafbirds to feed on it's nectar. Here we have a Japanese White-eye feeding on one of the many flowers.