Tanny said:
I was studying the Tit family and was surprised to see that our common Great and Coal Tits were residing in your area, although their colour was more grey.
There is some discussion in splitting this very grey form of Great Tit,which occurs in China and Japan (and maybe Korea) and calling it Parus Minor and in English possibly Japanese Tit. In my not very humble opinion both names suck, so I hope I'm wrong.
The Coal Tits in China are great - they have little spiky crests! There are no records yet in Hong Kong.
This morning was a good one in Ng Tung Chai:
There was no sign of the Bull-headed Shrike this morning, but immediately on entering the forest I saw the first of five or six
Asian Stubtail - a tiny
Cettia that spends it time rooting about in leaf litter and uttering a loud sharp call or an explosive song. They were an obvious sign of an arrival of migrants following the poor weather of the last couple of days.
Apart from a long-staying
Greenish Warbler and a
Grey Treepie calling across the ther sie of the valley, the walk up into the valley was pretty quiet, but just past the temple
Lesser Shotwings sang from both sides of the path almost simultaneously - suggesting that a turf war was under way. Curiously I had two more of these very secretive birds very close together in Dont' Dip Dell and had a rare open view of one of the birds for a few seconds.
The Dell was wonderful. As I approached i caught a glimpse of something coming off the deck onto a low branch, and then down again. Changing the angle to get a clear view I eventually had very good views of the metallic blue crown, royal blue back and bright orange belly of a male
Fukien Niltava - my fourth record here - and the first since Feb 04. Its a special bird for me here, as it was one I first saw at this site on my very first visit on Boxing Day in 1994 (see post 1 on this thread).
As I was watching the Niltava I heard a
Grey-headed Flycatcher start calling and enjoyed a wonderful bird wave that included the
Black-naped Monarch, several inquisitive
Grey-chinned Minivets, a
Red-billed Leiothrix, a number of
Chestnut Bulbuls and a sparkling
Mountain Tailorbird. Having to come back to work I left reluctantly, but added
Scarlet Minivet at point blank range, a couple of
Yellow-browed Warblers, a
Hwamei that flushed from almost beneath my feet, and a couple of
Velvet-fronted Nuthatches making one of their irregular visits to the valley. As I got back to the village I heard but could not see a couple of
turdus thrushes lurking on the slope above me - no IDbut more signs of birds arriving for the winter.