Mid-Summer Birds

Mid summer, Hong Kong birders often will tell you this is the quietest time of the year, with barely anything happening, there are barely any migrants, often no vagrants and weather is just too hot for anyone to be outside for any extended period of time. There are still some breeding birds around, but often nothing too exciting. A Chestnut-winged Cuckoo I got at home last month was probably the best I could manage, it did showed exceptionally well though, considering I didn't even need to leave my front door!

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo

If you care to look, all our resident species are still present. Yellow-bellied Prinias and Plain Prinias both breeds in Hong Kong, if you are lucky you sometimes can find their nests in the tall grass.

Yellow-bellied Prinia

Plain Prinia - nest

Many forest species are still active during the hottest month of the year, although getting to them often takes a lot more effort...So, all my recent sightings have been incidental. I got a pair of lovely Silver-eared Mesia posing nicely for me near Chuen Lung one morning, and a relatively cooperative Speckled Piculet near Sheung Shui.

Silver-eared Mesia

Speckled Piculet

Hainan Blue Flycatchers are one of our most prominent breeders in the forest of Hong Kong, while males are not really vocal anymore, around this time of the year it is not uncommon to see adults with their recently fledged youngs.

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - female

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male with juvenile

We don't have that many waterbirds or waders breeding in Hong Kong, Little Ringed Plover is one of the few, if you ever get too close to their nesting site, you will see the adult fake an injury, such as this one that was deliberately dropped its wings to act as if it was injured, so to lure me away from the actual nest site. I had no chance finding the actual nest anyway, as the egg was just so well camouflaged!

Little Ringed Plover

I paid a visit to the Black Baza breeding site near Sheung Shui, its been quite the focal point among photographers. I was quite surprised the pair have not abandoned the site given how much of the habitat have been destroyed by the construction right next to it, but they seems very loyal to this site. This is the last remaining breeding pair of Black Baza that I know in Hong Kong, who knows how many more years they will still breed here, my hope is that they will perhaps use other suitable habitats nearby if this patch of forest becomes too disturbed. I only got photo of one of the two birds, the other was seemingly busy hawking for insects in the dense foliage. It will be a shame if we lose this charismatic raptor as a breeding species.

Black Baza - one of our rarest local breeder

Signs of Spring Migration

Its been warming up lately, with temperature getting as high as 30°C, but a bit of rain cooled it off and brought in some more interesting birds. One of the best was a male Black-headed Bunting that dropped into San Tin, not in full breeding plumage just yet but still a rather good looking bird. It was enjoying the 'bread buffet', fattening up before its journey north.

Black-headed Bunting - male

A Eurasian Skylark also dropped in, though a regular migrant in Hong Kong they can sometimes be tricky to track down, so I was quite happy to find this one feeding along the dirt track.

Eurasian Skylark

A good number of waders are now dropping into the fishponds, small flock of Temminck's Stints been frequenting the fishponds including this Hong Kong tagged S4. A Spotted Redshank was found feeding amongst a few Marsh and Wood Sandpipers. A few Oriental Pratincoles finally dropped into the dried ponds, I scanned for Oriental Plovers but failed to find any.

Temminck's Stint

Spotted Redshank

Oriental Pratincole

Over at Tai Sang Wai, a Brahminy Kite been spotted by birders on two occasions, but it proves to be extremely elusive and not shown itself despite searching hard...A very confiding Little Bunting kept us entertained, while over ten Zitting Cisticolas decided to drop in together. The long staying Carrion Crow been showing exceptionally well, occasionally allowing close approach. 

Little Bunting

Zitting Cisticola

Carrion Crow & Collared Crow

At Mai Po, I caught up with the returning hybrid White Wagtail thats been frequenting the Tree Pipit site, it is believed to be an alboides x leucopsis hybrid. The Tree Pipit was still showing well, to my delight its now a much cleaner looking bird, having completed most of its moult.

White Wagtail - alboides x leucopsis

Tree Pipit - long staying rarity

The access road is quite a good place to look for buntings, although I've only seen Black-faced Buntings there lately, they remain very confiding. The Eurasian Wryneck near Mai Po was still showing well.

Black-faced Bunting - male

Eursian Wryneck

I gave Sha Lo Tung a go last week, but found very little of interest. Crested Serpent Eagles now very vocal and often seen in display flights. A rather confiding Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler together with an equally friendly Speckled Piculet were nice birds to make up for an otherwise uneventful outing. The best bird was probably a female Black-naped Monarch.

Crested Serpent Eagle

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler

Speckled Piculet

Black-naped Monarch - female

Though the Barred Cuckoo-doves continues to show occasionally, I've not been able to get any more photographs of these elusive doves...A few Pygmy Cupwings were vocal and gave relatively good views in the valley. The most photogenic bird there remains to be the extremely friendly Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker.

Pygmy Cupwing

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker - male

As weather warms up, insects are now much more active, here are a few members of the Lepidoptera family, such as this Episteme lectrix, a day flying moth. The beautiful Painted Jezebel that is quite common at this time of the year. A butterfly new to me was a Constable, I've wanted to see this species for quite a long time but never been able to find one, it is a nice looking butterfly on its own, but look exquisite once you put a flash on it! Luckily for me, this one allowed very close approach that I was able to use my phone to get a photo with flash on!

Episteme lectrix

Painted Jezebel - Delias hyparete

Constable - Dichorragia nesimachus

Tai Po Kau's not been exactly great of late, but a pair of Chinese Barbets been extremely vocal and with some effort I was able to locate one singing from the tree top. There were plenty of Black Bulbuls around, this is a species that I suspect should start breeding in Hong Kong sooner or later. Plain Flowerpeckers are now singing, they are not difficult to find once you learn their song.

Chinese Barbet

Black Bulbul

Plain Flowerpecker

Underway! Autumn Migration

Autumn migration started for nearly half a month, unfortunately I have been busy with work and barely had any time for birds, finally got most of my work done and was able to free up a morning for some birding! My top target was a Daurian Starling thats been seen at Mai Po, I have seen them many times in Hong Kong but never been able to get any decent photos. I was delighted to find not just one, but two Daurian Starlings feeding in a few ficus trees along the access road! They showed briefly at first but finally came into one of the closer trees to feed and gave great views.

Daurian Starling

They were not the only starlings feeding in those trees, with them were lots of White-shouldered Starlings, they are similar size to the Daurian Starlings, therefore can be confusing when searching for the odd one out in the field, but their greyish white backs and pale eyes are a dead giveaway.

White-shouldered Starling

Its that time of the year again where hundreds of Arctic Warblers passes through, they were in no short supply, you can either find them gleaning for insects in the trees or hear their 'chit-chit' call up above.

Arctic Warbler

In the same tree as the starlings were at least two Asian Brown Flycatchers, these returning migrants are highly under rated, while a common species during passage, they are great fun to watch, the two were chasing each other from time to time and often gave close views when perched.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

It is no autumn migration without any Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, was happy to catchup with this one, also in the same tree as the starlings! It was really quite shy and only showed briefly before chased away by an Asian Brown Flycatcher.

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher

I've not had much luck birding elsewhere, I visited Tai Lam and Tai Po Kau once earlier in the month, both outings were highly disappointing where I saw ZERO migrants. Although many of our local residents still showed well, including a Pygmy Cupwing, many Blue-winged Minlas, numerous Velvet-fronted Nuthatch and last but not least a few Speckled Piculet.

Pygmy Cupwing

Blue-winged Minla

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Speckled Piculet

One of the Brown-breasted Flycatcher at Tai Po Kau remained till early September, it showed well not far away from their nesting site, hopefully after this successful breeding season they will be back again next year.

Brown-breasted Flycatcher

Its never a bad time to look for Savanna Nightjar, while they are not vocal anymore come autumn, its not difficult to find them sitting quietly in the middle of the road at night, as long as you go slowly they can be fairly confiding.

Savanna Nightjar