A Few Spring Migrants in April

April's been such a busy month, I haven't really had much time doing birding on my own, so I am slightly behind on a few migrants, but things are definitely improving with a few more interesting birds here and there. The only few good spring migrants I have seen lately were two Swinhoe's Minivets, one at home and the other at Mai Po.

Swinhoe's Minivet

Other spring migrants I've encountered including a single Narcissus Flycatcher at Tai Po Kau, although it was too far away for any proper photos. Hainan Blue Flycatchers are back now, and quite a few heard at Tai Po Kau, although none really showed well. I visited Ho Man Tin briefly one morning, I didn't get to spend too much time there due to work, the only bird I got there was a single Asian Brown Flycatcher.

Narcissus Flycatcher - male

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Tai Po Kau is still a location I go most often due to birding tours, it is always a great location to start the day, and you often see a good range of local birds there on most days. It is the regular haunt for Crested Serpent Eagles, and of course you often see them perch on tall trees along the access road. Both Chinese Barbets and Great Barbets have been showing fairly well lately, both species can often be located through their calls.

Crested Serpent Eagle

Chinese Barbet

Great Barbet

Both Bay Woodpeckers and Speckled Piculets have been fairly active at Tai Po Kau, although the former did not give me any chance to get any photos, Speckled Piculets however are a bit more obliging. 

Speckled Piculet

Temperature's been getting higher, with temperature exceeding 30°C lately, many birds in the forest take baths to keep cool, such as these Blue-winged Minlas and Huet's Fulvettas. Yellow-cheeked Tits are now breeding, I observed a few pairs making nests, therefore less are following bird waves.

Blue-winged Minla

Huet's Fulvetta

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

A lot of other birds are also actively breeding, I observed Silver-eared Mesias collecting nesting materials, as well as an actual nest of Grey-chinned Minivets, although the pair seems to have abandoned the nest after a little while.

Silver-eared Mesia

Grey-chinned Minivet - female on nest

Other fairly vocal species lately includes Black-throated Laughingthrush and Velvet-fronted Nuthatch. There are not much flowering trees now to see Fork-tailed Sunbirds feeding, but males are quite vocal at the moment and can often be seen perched in the open singing. Plain Flowerpeckers are also very vocal still.

Black-throated Laughingthrush

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

Fork-tailed Sunbird - male

Plain Flowerpecker

Closer to home, I haven't found many interesting migrants at my local patch, but a male White-rumped Shama was in song, and several Streak-breasted Scimiter-Babblers showed well to me during my short walk.

White-rumped Shama - male

Streak-breasted Scimiter-Babbler

The over wintering Citrine Wagtail at Lok Ma Chau seems to have finally moved on, I saw it once more at the beginning of the month. Around the fish ponds, Whiskered Terns are now returning, with several seen feeding and resting on the fish ponds. The drained fish ponds attracts Oriental Pratincoles to roost there, and they are regularly seen flying around hawking for insects. Pied Kingfishers can still be found around the fish ponds with relative ease at this time of the year, but less White-throated Kingfishers are seen there now as most of them have started breeding on the hill sides.

Citrine Wagtail

Whiskered Tern

Oriental Pratincole

Pied Kingfisher

Several cuckoo species can now be regularly heard or seen around different birding sites, Large Hawk Cuckoos, Plaintive Cuckoos, Indian Cuckoos and Chestnut-winged Cuckoos to name a few. I spotted a distant Oriental Cuckoo during an outing at Mai Po, my first for spring.

Oriental Cuckoo

Another Rarity - Brown-eared Bulbul

Po Toi is traditionally our best birding spot in Hong Kong to spot migrants, it is our most southerly island and often attract a good number of migrants. Over the years this is one of the best birding spot to look for rarity during spring and autumn, with some pretty incredible sightings in the past. 

Last week someone spotted a Brown-eared Bulbul on the island, this is only the 4th record in Hong Kong, with previous 3 records all just one day birds. While this is a very common species in Japan, they rarely venture to southern China, with most records concentrated to Taiwan and the east coast of China. Since the bird continued to be seen throughout the week, I thought I may as well give it a try. Luckily for me, it stayed on and after a little bit of effort on the island, I got some good views of it perched on top of a bare branch. This bird was extremely mobile, it was seen flying from one end of the island to the other, the best strategy in the end was just to stand at one spot and wait for it to come through.

Brown-eared Bulbul - a Hong Kong tick for me

Brown-eared Bulbul - showing the interesting undertail coverts

It was quite a misty day with a bit of drizzle in the air, the continued easterly winds probably helped to bring in a few birds as well. There were plenty of birds to see as we waited for the bulbul, including a male Chestnut Bunting, a male Black-naped Oriole and a few Eyebrowed Thrush. Dollarbirds were also seen, but they were perched too far away that I didn't bother taking any photos.

Chestnut Bunting - male

Black-naped Oriole - male

Eyebrowed Thrush

There was a flock of four minivets, initially I thought they were all Ashy Minivets as I saw a female perched on top of a tree, on closer inspection however revealed that the other three were actually Swinhoe's Minivets! While they are regular passage migrants in Hong Kong, Swinhoe's Minivets are considerably less common than Ashy Minivets. They gave great views for me despite perching a bit high up. The two species look quite similar, but Swinhoe's Minivets have buffish underside, while Ashy Minivets always have very pale underside.

Ashy Minivet - female

Swinhoe's Minivet - male

Along the mangrove a distant Black-capped Kingfisher showed briefly, I relocated it perched even further away into the forest later on. A Eurasian Hoopoe was a lot friendlier, this one perched only a few metres away from me for a couple of minutes, allowing me to get a few good shots before flying off.

Black-capped Kingfisher

Eurasian Hoopoe

There were good numbers of Chinese Sparrowhawks around, most were seen in flight, but some occasionally will perch for a decent view, such as this nice looking male.

Chinese Sparrowhawk - female

Chinese Sparrowhawk - male

Other birds seen in the air were numerous Pacific Swifts. A couple of Grey-faced Buzzards came through, this is another classic migrant raptor in Hong Kong, some flew low enough for me to grab some decent photos. Two birds were seen chasing each other in the air at great speed, which I initially thought were two Chinese Sparrowhawks fighting, I was a bit surprise when I reviewed the photos that it was actually a Japanese Sparrowhawk chasing an Oriental Cuckoo!

Pacific Swift

Grey-faced Buzzard

Japanese Sparrowhawk & Oriental Cuckoo

Over at San Tin, there isn't a lot of new arrivals, a small flock of Sand Martins were the best I could manage, I spent a little bit of time trying to get some photos of them in flight, here are a few that turned out decent enough.

Sand Martin

Over at Mai Po, many migrating waders are still coming through, I got some closer views of Black-tailed Godwits on the scrape the other day, while a Great Knot came up really close to the bird hide, allowing for some closeup shots. Whimbrels are also in quite good numbers now. A Black Kite came through and flushed everything up in the air, turns out it actually snatched a Red-necked Stint from the flock, the Black Kites in Mai Po is actually quite peculiar in that they actively hunt for birds instead of just feeding on carrion.

Black-tailed Godwit

Great Knot

Eurasian Whimbrel

Black Kite with Red-necked Stint

A single Pallas's Gull remains, which is quite unusual as we don't usually get them staying on this late, this is a non-breeding bird so there is actually a chance it may over summer here in Mai Po. Many Black-faced Spoonbills are still around, as well as a few Eurasian Spoonbills.

Pallas's Gull

Black-faced and Eurasian Spoonbill

Cattle Egrets are now in full breeding plumage, many were seen on the buffalo field at Mai Po, posing next to water buffalos in the most classic fashion. Good numbers of Chinese Penduline Tits can still be found around the reedbeds, although close views still require a bit of luck! Red-throated Pipits are still around, although numbers seems to have dropped from earlier in the month.

Cattle Egret

Chinese Penduline Tit - female

Red-throated Pipit

One of my better find at Mai Po were a few Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, having missed them last year I was very happy to connect with them again! While this is actually a very common species in South East Asia, here in Hong Kong we only get them as a scarce passage migrant.

Blue-tailed Bee-eater