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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

China 2010 (1 Viewer)

Thanks Richard.

It's good to know there are people out their who support the honourable principles of The BBBC ;-)

Maybe Jankowski escaped because Mr King knows in his heart of hearts that the people he refers to ("conservationists, bureaucrats, teachers, students, media people, editors and others unfamiliar with birds") are more likely to do their bit to drag Jankowski's Bunting back from the brink than they would be to help something with the "so-what?" name used by Clements (Rufous-backed Bunting).
 
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I think my flippant comment may have been taken rather more seriously than intended! It was a rather feeble attempt at humour and eluded to the former England cricket captain Mike Atherton, who was notorious for his incredibly slow scoring and refusing to walk when clearly out, rather than a penetrating taxonomic insight.

While "Atherton's" Bee-Eater might be a stretch too far for me, I'm with you all the way on the retention and promotion of patronymic names. As you say, they are memorable, romantic, and often honour pioneers who ought to be remembered.

One of the less enjoyable features of Neotropical birding are the endlessly repetitive and instantly forgettable descriptive names (Cinereous, Grey, Greyish, Sooty, Black, Blackish, Jet, Spotted, Spot-backed, Spot-winged, Banded, Band-winged, Dotted, Dot-backed Ant(bird/wren/shrike/thrush). I can't for the life of me understand why anybody wants to inflict this bland and confusing sort of nomenclature on Asian birds.

Oh, and I don't think Jankowski did escape the nomenclatural-correctness - I thought it was now "Rufous-backed Bunting"?

Perhaps we should re-christen American Robin as American thrush in protest?
 
Jankowski's Bunting

Oh, and I don't think Jankowski did escape the nomenclatural-correctness - I thought it was now "Rufous-backed Bunting"?
Well, I was just referring to King's Eurasian checklist. But it's also "Jankowski's" for IOC (Recommended English Names :t:), OBC, China OS, Beaman 1994, MacKinnon & Phillipps 2000, and Brazil 2009. Regrettably, BLI, Cornell/Clements and HBW (IBC) have all let the side down.

Richard
 
Well, I was just referring to King's Eurasian checklist. But it's also "Jankowski's" for IOC (Recommended English Names :t:), OBC, China OS, Beaman 1994, MacKinnon & Phillips 2000, and Brazil 2009. Regrettably, BLI, Cornell/Clements and HBW (IBC) have all let the side down.

Richard

Ah, thanks Richard. Maybe Ben thinks it's simple enough for us English speakers to pronounce correctly;)

Cheers
Duncan
 
Jankowski's Bunting

Maybe Ben thinks it's simple enough for us English speakers to pronounce correctly ;)
But I suspect that some would render it as: JAN (as in January) - COW (as in bovine animal) - SKI. ;)

Richard (wandering ever further off-topic... or is it a target for this year, Shi Jin?)
 
Hi DMW

I guessed you were referring to Mike Atherton, the former England opener. In fact, I tipped my hat in your direction on my 18th February posting: "A close up view of the blue-bearded Atherton's Bee-eater was a nice opener" ;-)

Cheers
 
Hi Richard, yes I will be going up to Manchuria at the end of May for a date with that hot Russian, Jan Kowski. Hope she turns up.

btw I saw her several year's ago up there, and actually managed to take a snap (which I keep in my wallet).

I hope she's keeping well ;-)
 
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Back to the birds if I might...

Can anyone help me with the "blue-throated" barbet I wrote about on the 18th February: photo at: www.ChineseCurrents.com/2010birds19.html

btw I saw it on arable land, at about 300 yards above-sea-level (unusual habitat for it I thought).

I've looked at hundreds of photos and can find nothing like it.

If everyone is as puzzled as me, worry not as I have a name for it just in case...

Xi's Barbet (pronounced "sea's").

My wife would be so delighted that she might even give me the okay to go up to Xinjiang for three weeks this summer ;-)
 
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Shi Jin, you might get a different set of eyes looking at your barbet if you post it on the Bird ID forum - some people who know a lot and like to look over the fine points of id may have a look there. It would be exciting if it is new!!!

(Well, yes I admit, it can be useful to put the same things in different threads sometimes;) )
 
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Friday, 19th February

Yunnan, Burma border


I headed back up the border trail at first light, hoping to get a better view of Great Hornbill as well as some photos of a few of the 200 or more species that I could theoretically bump into here.

The sun had not risen when I saw my first bird of the day perched on some bamboo, next to the track. I was puzzled at first, I then noticed its "racquet-tail" and realised it was of course a Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo. [Kindly note that The BBBC is considering a name change from racket to racquet, for the two drongo species that have this feature... it will be resolved as soon as we can get our hands on a copy of the OED, but we suspect that “racquet” is still the preferred English spelling].

Either way, there was something quite arty about the tail and the bamboo (when there's no light and you are shooting at a ridiculously high ISO, then "art" is always a useful smoke-screen... at least for me). With poor light today, "art" is a feature of today's photo collection.

It was still not quite light when I spotted a very small owl perched very high up. It had its back to me, which was quite handy as I could see the diagnostic nape markings of Collared Owlet. The first time I had actually seen the species! But I had to wait for 10 minutes or so for it to twist its neck round for the shot that appears below.

A pair of Leschenault's Bee-eaters, or chestnut "head & shoulders" bee-eaters if you prefer, was the next photo-treat. I've noticed that this bird seems to prefer butterflies to bees.. at least in these parts. Just as I was watching one dismember a butterfly, a female Greater Flameback flew past, which I somehow managed to get a flight shot of.

Much further up the track (about three and a half hours walk up, or perhaps 14 or so km) I sat down to eat some lemon cake. Very nice it was too. I was just washing it down with some cold, red tea, when I saw something that made me splutter. A female Wreathed Hornbill was flying languidly towards me, above the hillside, at almost eye-level. I swapped the bottle of tea for my camera, and fired off several shots. The Wreathed Hornbill then landed in a tree. It looked around for a few minutes, squawked a few times, and then set off. I had my camera poised just as it did so, and was able to get some shots of the bird looking more like a jet-fighter than a hornbill.

Just as I was thinking that birding doesn't get any better than this, the sky darkened... (..actually I am exaggerating somewhat, but they are big birds). The male and female Wreathed Hornbill slowly glided past in the direction of the lone female I had seen just a few minutes before. The sequence of photos that appear below capture the events as they unfolded.

Assuming that this male was not one of the party of 5 bachelors I had seen two days before, then there are at least EIGHT Wreathed Hornbills in this area.

I came down the mountain a little early in an effort to see some parakeets down by the river. No luck, but in the half-light of the evening (hence the “arty” photos), I did find and photograph three species I had not seen before on this trip – within 100 yards of each other (all, thankfully, on the China-side of the border):

Little Green Bee-eater, Red-wattled Lapwing (2), and a Wire-tailed Swallow! The latter was well-appreciated because there have not been many China records. In fact, the one I found very near here three years ago was perhaps only the second or third country-record.

I noticed that there was a Chinese bird-watcher just down the track, who had a big lens. I shouted him over excitedly. Problem was, there were now three or four hundred swallows without wire-tails swirling around. I tried to explain the significance of what I'd just seen, somehow remembering the Chinese name for the bird, which I blurted out. At that point, the photographer lost interest in the hunt.

"Wire-tailed Swallow?" he questioned.

"I photographed one of those a few days ago at Ruili" [5 hours drive south of here].

Just as I had re-found the bird and was re-defining the word futility by trying to take some flight photos of it in the murky half-light, he decided to pull the trigger:

"Look!... I’ve got some really nice shots of it!"

And very nice they were too, but who wants crisp, in-yer-face frame-fillers when you can have grainy-minimalism ;-)

Twenty photos published today, of 14 species, all except Wreathed Hornbill are new for 2010.

Photos at: www.ChineseCurrents.com/2010birds20.html

158 Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo (ssp tectirostris)
159 Puff-throated Babbler (ssp ?)
160 Collared Owlet (nom. ssp brodiei)
161 Leschenault's Bee-eater (nom. ssp leschenaulti)
162 Greater Flameback (ssp guttacristatus)
Wreathed Hornbill
163 Maroon Oriole (nom. ssp traillii)
164 Grey-backed Shrike (nom. ssp tephronotus)
165 Large Woodshrike (ssp pelvicus)
166 Pied Bushchat (ssp burmanicus)
167 Scaly-breasted Munia (ssp yunnanensis)
168 Wire-tailed Swallow (ssp filifera)
169 Red-wattled Lapwing (ssp atronuchalis)
170 Little Green Bee-eater (ssp ferrugeiceps)


Other birds seen:

Goosander, 1 male
Grey-headed Woodpecker, 1
Giant Barbet, few
Blue-throated Barbet, few
Hoopoe, 1
Asian Palm Swift, c20
Mountain Imperial Pigeon, 1
Spotted Dove, c10
Emerald Dove, few
White-breasted Waterhen, few
Cormorant sp, 1
Little Egret, sev
Hardwick's Leafbird, sev
Long-tailed Shrike, few
Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike, 1
Yellow-bellied Fantail, few
White-throated Fantail, 1
Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, few
Himalayan Bluetail, 1
Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, 2
Siberian Stonechat, sev
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, 1
Grey-throated sand Martin, c50
Swallow, c300
Striated Swallow, few
Flavescent Bulbul, c20
Black Bulbul, c50
Mountain Bulbul, 1
White-throated Bulbul, sev
Rufous-capped Babbler, 2
Blyth's Leaf Warbler, 1
White-crested laughingthrush, sev
Blue-winged Minla, 1
Silver-eared Mesia, c10
Long-tailed Sibia, few
Black-throated Sunbird, 4
Streaked Spiderhunter, sev
Little Bunting, c60
 
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Saturday, 20th February, 8am to 4pm

Yunnan, Burma border


My last day of the trip, I was determined to get some shots of a few of the signature birds of the area that had thus far eluded me

I took the same motorbike rickshaw I had taken earlier in the week; arriving at the high-point of the road just after first light.

A female Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush was my first photo opportunity of the day, albeit a distant one. But not nearly as distant as the small woodpecker I photographed next. So distant, I really didn't know what it was. I couldn't see any obvious breast-striping and it somehow reminded me of pictures I had seen of Fulvous-breasted, which I understand has never been seen in Yunnan. Then again, I had never seen Stripe-breasted, but had fully expected even the female of that species to have what it says on the can... ie prominent breast-stripes.

[The bird - photo below - is in fact a female Stripe-breasted as its shoulders are black, not white-speckled and its black malar stripe is generously proportioned - not that I was able to work this out for myself!]

I spent the next three hours in a clearing, where there was an abundance of seeding bushes that attracted many different species. A Coral-billed Scimitar Babbler was an exciting find, although the light was not good enough to do it justice.

Then came a flock of several Red-faced Liocichla, which were annoyingly difficult to get photos of. But perseverance paid off in the end (well, sort of). The next in the queue was a small group of Whiskered Yuhina; followed by several Grey Sibia. As soon as I saw this species, I was on alert for the much-rarer Rufous-backed Sibia (a bird I had photographed a few days before, without realising it at the time). I didn't have to wait long, before this gloriously-patterned sibia appeared from nowhere, and I was able to watch it for a few minutes and get a "not that bad" shot of it - my 5th Sibia species of the trip.

By now, the sun was shining brightly and I was able to enjoy the excellent conditions for photography. Seeing a Flavescent Bulbul is always a pleasure, but in this wonderful light it's easy to see why this area's subspecies vividus was so named.

And, finally, after getting poor shots of the species every day for the past few days I was able to get a reasonable photo of the delightful Silver-eared Mesia. Even a Blue-winged Minla paused long enough for a photo.

But I still had not seen (or so I had thought) Stripe-breasted Woodpecker. This is one of the two woodpecker "specialities" of this area that had eluded me despite spending some 18 days in the field here, over three trips.

With time slipping away, I walked down the mountain road with woodpeckers firmly in mind. A soft tapping coming from the direction of a dead tree attracted my attention. Third time lucky! There it was, a male Stripe-breasted, in good light, at a reasonable distance. I enjoyed the bird through my bins for a while. Just as well, because as soon as I touched my camera, the bird decided that he would rather be elsewhere.

Mrs Wang (one of the best drivers in China you will remember) arrived at the meeting point on time, and took me back to my hotel where I collected my rucksack.

On the way back, we had to pass the place where I had managed to get a poor photo of the Coral-billed Scimitar Babbler in the morning. I thought it would be worth stopping for a while on the off chance that it was still in the area.

As luck would have it, the Coral-billed appeared just before I was about to leave and I was able to get a photo of this beautiful bird in glorious sunlight. Maybe I'm biased, but I really think that this species is far classier than its "Red-billed" cousin. This is my favourite babbler (although Robert's Wren-Babbler is hot on its heels ;-).

This was the last photo of the trip and it's a fitting end to a very enjoyable time in what is one of my favourite birding areas in China, or anywhere for that matter.

15 species photographed today (10 species "new" for 2010 are highlighted). Photos appear on my website at:

www.ChineseCurrents.com/2010birds21.html

171 Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush (monotypic)
Mountain Bulbul (ssp similis)
172 Stripe-breasted Woodpecker (monotypic)
173 Whiskered Yuhina (ssp rouxi)
174 Red-faced Liocichla (ssp bakeri)

Rufous-backed Sibia (nom ssp annectens)
175 Flavescent Bulbul (ssp vividus)
176 Common Tailorbird (ssp inexpectatus)

Rusty-capped Fulvetta
Blue-throated Barbet
177 Ashy-throated Warbler (nom. Ssp maculipennis)
Chestnut-tailed Starling
178 Blue-winged Minla (ssp wingatei)
179 Silver-eared Mesia (ssp vernayi)
180 Coral-billed Scimitar Babbler (ssp stanfordi?)


Other birds seen:

Great Barbet, few
Atherton's Bee-eater, 1
Asian Palm Swift, c30
Emerald Dove, 1
Accipiter sp, 1 male
Little Egret, c200
Cattle Egret, c30
Maroon Oriole, 2
Black-winged Cuckooshrike, 1
Bronzed Drongo, c20
Yellow-bellied Fantail, few
Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, few
Large Woodshrike, 1
Eugene's Whistling Thrush, 1
Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch, 1
Naga Nuthatch, 1
Grey Sibia, c20
Striated Yuhina, c10
Red-billed Leiothrix, 1
Streaked Spiderhunter, 1
Purple Sunbird, 1 male
 
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Thursday, 25th February, 1pm to 3.30pm

Guangdong, Shenzhen


I suffered three full days of the "worst winter in 40 years" in Beijing before I was off again to warmer climes.

I had flown to Guangzhou, where the pollution levels combined with an unrelenting drizzle scuppered my plan for an early-morning trip to the university grounds (which, I understand, can be good at this time of year).

I took a two hour drive via fast expressway to Shenzhen, which as many will know is on the other side of Deep Bay from Mai Po in Hong Kong.

Last year, I had managed to "persuade" the gate-keeper to allow me to access the Mangrove Bird Reserve, and was able to get close enough to Mai Po's Black-faced Spoonbills for a "mood shot". But this year, the smiling gate-keeper had been replaced by an unsmiling People's Liberation Army border guard. I know he was a border guard because he had proudly pointed to his border guard badge, while telling me that I was in a restricted "border area". This annoyed me somewhat and I couldn't help reminding him of the "One China" policy. This confused him to the extent that he started playing nervously with the handle of his gun as he tried to explain the logic of something that makes no sense.

So, resigned to not seeing one of the rarest and most beautiful birds in the world today, I made a tactical retreat to the public park that abuts the bay.

This must be one of the best places in China to photograph Masked Laughingthrush and Black-collared Starling, which as you can see from the photo has the silliest of silly walks.

During my visit last year, the low-tide mud of Deep Bay held thousands of waders. This time the tide was high, and most of the waders had congregated in the shallows, miles away. But, just as I was cursing my bad-timing, I saw that a pair of Black-faced Spoonbills were actually on the Shenzhen side of the bay. After twenty minutes or so, they waded close-enough for me to take a couple of photos. Not quite frame-filling (!) but any encounter with this delightfully elegant bird is always a pleasure.

Photos of 7 species today (6 "new" for 2010 are highlighted).

Photos at www.ChineseCurrents.com/2010birds22.html

181 Red-whiskered Bulbul (nom. ssp jocosus)
182 Masked Laughingthrush (monotypic)
183 Black-collared Starling (monotypic)
184 Oriental Magpie Robin (ssp prosthopellus)
185 Black-faced Spoonbill (monotypic)
186 Red-billed Starling (monotypic)

Long-tailed Shrike

Other birds seen:

Japanese White-eye, sev
Shoveler, several hundred
Wigeon, c200
Avocet, c150
Greenshank, c40
Great Cormorant, c30
Little Egret, c500
Great White Egret, c100
Tufted Duck, 2
 
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Thursday, 4th March, 10.15am to 12.30pm

Beijing, Wenyu River


Shirt-sleeve weather in Beijing today. The mercury hit a balmy high of two degrees. Alas, the pollution index was off the scale again. But you can't have it all.

After my travels to the further flung areas of this continent-size country, it felt a little strange being back on my local patch, by the Wenyu River. The river separates "downtown" Beijing (Chaoyang district) from the wilds of suburbia (Shunyi district). The river has remained mostly ice-free all winter and, despite today's "mild" weather, was still the only ice-free water within miles.

In November, I photographed Bewick's Swan and Swan Geese here, but would there be any sign of migration today I wondered. The 200 or so mallards have been here throughout the winter, but what was that white dot in the distance? Smew! In fact, a group of seven of them, including three males. The light was terrible, but I eventually managed to get close enough to get some okay flight shots.

Despite the gloom, the "warmth" had persuaded many birds to blow the dust of their song books. The singing Chinese Grosbeak (accompanied by three female admirers) was lovely, but the award for the most impressive display of spring-singing has to go to the Rustic Buntings. I was amazed to find the biggest congregation of them I have ever seen - about a hundred - most of which seemed to be singing in unison.

As you can see from the list below, there was a large amount of "action" today. It just goes to show that if you leave the house expecting little, you can quite often be very pleasantly surprised.

Photos of 4 species (the 2 "new" for 2010 are highlighted).

Photos at www.ChineseCurrents.com/2010birds23.html

Chinese Grosbeak, male, 4
Smew, 7 (3 males)
187 Rustic Bunting, male (c100)
188 White-cheeked Starling (sev)

Also:

Daurian Jackdaw, 8
Eastern Buzzard, 3
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, 1
Wren, 1
Hoopoe, 1
Naumann's Thrush, 1
Goldeneye, c60
Water Pipit, 1
Marsh Tit (singing), 2
Little Grebe, 2
Rufous Turtle Dove, few
Spotted Dove, 4
Common Pheasant, 1 female
Azure-winged magpie, c30
Magpie, c50
 
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Saturday, 6th March, 1pm to 5.30pm

Beijing, Wenyu River


Cold again. The coldest winter in Beijing since the dawn of time. Or at the very least, since the last ice age. What, on earth, has happened to global warming? But, what's that, blue sky?? And windless?? The sky was so blue, I stared at it for what seemed like an age. In most parts of the world, this would be considered very odd behaviour, but those of you who have spent any time in Beijing, will understand my reaction. I hadn't seen sky this colour since the Olympics - when all construction work was stopped, all factories closed down, and most of the cars taken off the road.

As I was staring at the sky, a thought entered my head.

I ran to the garage. Yes, it was still there (I had rode it back from the pub last autumn). What's more, the tyres still had air in them.

I donned two shirts, two jumpers, a jacket, an overcoat, thermal gloves and my thickest woolly hat, and I was away.

The last time I had cycled by the Wenyu River, I had to push the bike further than I could ride it (they were in the process of replacing the perfectly good track with a road that was wider than most of those in Norfolk). The road was now finished, and what a wonderfully engineered road it was (this project alone must have made an important contribution to Chaoyang district's GDP).

Of course there were no cars on it, because the road connects places that people don't want to go to. I would normally scoff at the waste of money of such projects and ridicule the intentions of the civil servants behind it. But what a great cycling track!

I was able to cycle by the Wenyu river for 20 kilometres north-west. But that's where the good news ends, because it was bloody freezing and I saw very few birds.

But there were a few signs of spring in the form of huge flocks of Daurian Jackdaws (several hundred birds in total, including a few immatures); and a small party of Eastern Rooks (no idea if anyone will ever get round to checking its DNA, but so what).

Photos of 2 "new" birds for 2010 can be seen at www.ChineseCurrents.com/2010birds24.html

189 Daurian Jackdaw (adults and an immature)
190 Eastern Rook (pastinator)

Also:

Mallard, 500
Gadwall, 5
Teal, few
Smew, 5 (1 male, 4 "redheads")
Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2
Eastern Buzzard, 1
Rustic Bunting (singing)
Hoopoe, 1
Little Grebe, 5
Green Sandpiper, 1
 
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Splitting Yarns

Beijing, 8 March


I had planned to go birding today, but the overnight snow that now covers Beijing has made driving here even more dangerous than it would be normally, so I thought I'd catch up on some reading.

I opened the Birds of China list that was kindly linked to on a different BF thread (thanks Richard).

Frustratingly, I didn't recognise more than a few of the bird names that appear on the list (as a Clements user, I'm used to things moving at glacial speed!). The publishes of this list however seem to be up to speed with the very latest splits.

One of the splits that caught my attention is Red-faced Liocichla (sp phoenicea) and Scarlet-faced Liocichla (sp ripponi).

Clements, as I mentioned, doesn't recognise the split in the latest edition (6.4). And classifies Red-faced Liocichla as such:

Liocichla phoenicea phoenicea
Himalayas from Nepal to Bhutan and Assam (Mishmi Hills)

Liocichla phoenicea bakeri
S Assam (s of the Brahmaputra) to nw Myanmar and nw Yunnan

Liocichla phoenicea ripponi
E Myanmar (Kachin State to s Shan States) and nw Thailand

Liocichla phoenicea wellsi
S China (se Yunnan) to n Laos and n Tonkin

On that basis, I assigned the birds I saw to bakeri.

The IBC, however, splits as follows:

Scarlet-faced Liocichla (Liocichla ripponi)
Other common names: Red-faced Liocichla

Taxonomy: Trochalopterum [sic] ripponi Oates, 1900, Fort Stedman, Southern Shan State, Myanmar.
Has been treated in expanded genus Garrulax, but placement in present genus supported by recent molecular studies. Often treated as conspecific with L. phoenicea. Individuals of this species recorded in area from S Yunnan (China) S to E part of NW Thailand not yet assigned to race. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

ripponi ( Oates, 1900) - E & SE Myanmar, adjacent S China (W & SW Yunnan) and NW Thailand.
wellsi ( La Touche, 1921) - SE China (SE Yunnan E to NE Guangxi), N Laos and extreme N Vietnam (N Tonkin).


AND

Crimson-faced Liocichla (Liocichla phoenicea)
Other common names: Red-faced Liocichla, Crimson-winged Laughingthrush

Taxonomy: Ianthocincla phoenicea Gould, 1837, Nepal.
Has been treated in expanded genus Garrulax, but placement in present genus supported by recent molecular studies. Often treated as conspecific with L. ripponi. No definite records from Nepal, despite type-locality restriction (although “Nepal” specimens exist). Individuals at Gongshan, in NW Yunnan (China), of uncertain race, presumed to belong with nominate. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

phoenicea (Gould, 1837) - Sikkim and N West Bengal E to Bhutan and NE India (Arunachal Pradesh) and adjacent N Myanmar and S China (Gongshan, in extreme NW Yunnan).
bakeri (E. J. O. Hartert, 1908) - Meghalaya, S Assam (N Cachar), Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, in NE India, N Myanmar (W & S parts) and adjacent S China (W Yunnan).


Given that I saw the birds a few miles from northern, not eastern Burma, then this would also indicate that the birds I saw are attributable to bakeri.

But hold on a moment, what are the distinguishing characteristics of bakeri and ripponi (given that they are supposedly different species, one would hope that there are some differences).

Robson (Birds of South-east Asia) seems to have the answer: Forget tones of red/crimson/scarlet/whatever, the red of ripponi is shown to be more extensive and extending to the chin.

Clearly, this is the bird I photographed.
3 photos appear here:
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/2010birds21.html



So, to clarify, on this basis the bird is a Scarlet-faced not Red-faced (aka Crimson-faced). Or, more sensibly, it's a Rippon's Liocichla.

As soon as we are able to convene a meeting of The BBBC, the name will be changed accordingly ;-)

As far as the other one is concerned, I have no idea if it has actually been seen in China.

In short, I'd rather be birding than trying to make any kind of sense of all this.

But it's still bloody snowing.
 
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Glad you got the spoonbills in the end Shi Jin, cracking birds by the looks of it! The smew are also very impressive!

Here in Durban, South Africa I have the opposite problem, its just too hot to go birding! February-March the daytime temperature seldom drops below 30 degrees celcius, a far cry from your coldest winter since the ice age!

Hope it thaws for you soon!
Andrew
 
Thanks Andrew

Your warm regards have made it feel far less cold.

The minimum of 30 at yours is what it will be like here from June.

Why put the capital here you may be wondering.

Well, the invading Mongols (Genghis Khan et al), who came up with the idea, must have thought that the harsh winters and summers were the perfect living conditions. Home from home no less ;-)
 
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