Adjutant, Eastern Bangkok, Thailand, Oct. 13 (1 Viewer)

[Indobirder]

Hi all.
I had this Adjutant fly over (very high) at Lam Toi Ting on the outskirts of Bangkok this morning. I'm unfamiliar with both greater and lesser. Greater would be substantially more rare, but both would be first record for Bangkok (according to eBird at least)... Suggestions have already been made that it is an escapee from a zoo, but I'd be curious to hear what people here think

My friend also got some pics (I suspect they are better than mine). I'll hopefully post those as well after he sends them to me.

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

I am no expert here and have seen both species only once 31 years ago, but I get the feeling from the pictures that it looks more like Greater Adjutant...

 

[Indobirder]

These are the photos my friend took

 

[THE_FERN]

I think the bill size (more specifically the width), and the broadly triangular white patch at the base of the wing favour greater adjutant. An upper wing shot would confirm it.

 

[antbird53]

I think the bill size (more specifically the width), and the broadly triangular white patch at the base of the wing favour greater adjutant. An upper wing shot would confirm it.

I think both species have the white axillary spur, but I think one can see a neck pouch here which would again suggest Greater Adjutant

 

[THE_FERN]

I think both species have the white axillary spur, but I think one can see a neck pouch here which would again suggest Greater Adjutant

The axillary white seems a different shape in the 2. Greater adjutant has a more equilateral triangle with no white leading out along the "arm". Lesser adjutant has a smaller, longer triangular patch which may devolve into white which follows the arm.

 

[Indobirder]

Sweet! Thank you all for your input 👍

 

[Indobirder]

Gonna bump this post back to the top again

The eBird reviewing committee thinks this might be an escapee Marabou Stork from Safari World in Bangkok. (One had been seen there a while back). Does anyone have input on Marabou vs. Adjutant?

Thanks once again!

 

[THE_FERN]

Gonna bump this post back to the top again

The eBird reviewing committee thinks this might be an escapee Marabou Stork from Safari World in Bangkok. (One had been seen there a while back). Does anyone have input on Marabou vs. Adjutant?

Thanks once again!

Sounds plausible. Perhaps there is a clear distinction but it wasn't obvious to me, except that the throat skin is pink versus yellow in the adjutant.

The light balance is greatly influencing the impression in images above and the skin may well be pinker that it appears at first sight. I'd adjust the colour balance and see what this does

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Can´t exclude marabou stork on these photo series, very difficult to judge the yellowness of bare throat skin....

 

[MacNara]

I have only seen Marabou and Lesser Adjutant. Normally I wouldn't comment here. However since there seems to be no definitive conclusion after ten days, I'll join in.

I don't think it's Lesser partly because in my own photos and online photos there is a black stripe down the neck on Lesser which is missing in the other two.

(See attachment 1 - Lesser from Malaysia; my photo)

If so, then it's either Greater or Marabou.

I sometimes adjust photos that people post because you can sometimes get more information than is first apparent.

I adjusted your friend's photo ...954 to remove the yellow cast and also blow it up a bit.

(See attachment 2)

One thing I noticed looking at online photos is that the undertail white seems to stretch to the middle of the base of the tail in Marabou (and also Lesser, for that matter), but significantly less so in Greater. If this is a feature then it would support Greater for your bird. Birds of the World online specifically notes 'sooty-grey undertail-coverts' for Greater (although they are making a comparison with Lesser, not Marabou).

(See attachment 3 - Marabou from Uganda; my photo)

Looking more closely at your photo, however, I think that the yellow iris is visible. Indeed, I think you can see this in your friend's unadjusted photo in post #3. If this is real, then it is a key feature distinguishing between Greater and Marabou, so your bird would definitely be Greater. Marabou has a dark iris, which I think would not show yellow particularly in the black surrounds of the face in this photo. But whether your rareties committee will accept this is another matter.

(See attachment 4)

I'm just offering this in the hopes it might clarify things. To repeat, I have brief personal experience of Lesser and none at all of Greater. Maybe someone knows if the undertail difference is a significant feature or not?

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Hi MacNara,

Thanks, I didn´t realise this before but I think the UTC coloration is a very good point to Greater adjutant...

I saw what you mean about the eye and also thought that the dark of a marabou stork iris might show up more - but to me photo quality makes this very difficult to asses ( as an aside, to me the iris of greater adjutant is white , not yellow?)

 

[THE_FERN]

For some reason I didn't notice the UTC difference but you're clearly right about this. I personally can't assess the eye colour but the utcs are good evidence

 

[MacNara]

I hope that Indobirder, having bumped this query, will get back to us in due course.

One thing that surprised me in retrospect is that, given that any of the three possibilities suggested would be a very unusual bird in Bangkok (or even a first sighting) then I would have expected there to have been quite a few sightings by local birders. It's not as if it's a little thing that blends in or skulks in the bushes! It would be surprising if the only people to have noticed it were two visiting birders. Although not impossible - I have no idea how popular birding is in Thailand.

I am not familiar at with birds of this area, with only a brief visit to Malaysian Borneo so far. I wonder what is the bird seen in photo 2871(2) with a similar wing-pattern, but different look - from Robson I would assume Milky Stork, as White Stork is a vagrant, and it doesn't look like Openbill to me.

And what is the bird in the larger version of his friend's picture ...724?

Attachments below.

Indobirder gives his location as Timika, which is in Indonesian Papua, so maybe he doesn't have access to Thai Bangkok birding reports. I wonder if anyone who does have access has seen any reports of a bird like this?

 

[Indobirder]

Hi Macnara,

Thank you very much for the additional observations and edited images! I hadn't noticed the difference in UTC color or eyecolor. It does seem promising for Greater, but as you say who knows if the records people will accept it. For myself I'm happy to record it as a Greater Adjutant.

The second bird in the photos is an Asian Openbill, at least that's what I identified it as at the time.

I am aware of the Thai bird report FB page. Nobody else reported seeing this bird. But the speed at which birds migrate could easily mean that things get missed. There are a decent number of birders, but not that many (unlike in europe)

I assume this is a migrant because it was riding thermals and ended up flying east. If it was sticking around the area I think someone would come across it.

My location is no longer accurate 👀

Thank you to everyone who has provided responses. It is highly valued

 

[MacNara]

I assume this is a migrant because it was riding thermals and ended up flying east. If it was sticking around the area I think someone would come across it.

Thanks for your reply. As I said, I have no personal experience of Greater Adjutant. However, having done some research for this thread (just for personal education and fun), I would be interested to know where you think it was migrating from and to?

If you don't have a subscription to Birds of the World, then you may not be able to access their page on this species. However, they seem to suggest two disjunct populations (map attached below), but they don't indicate any migration. You seem to be suggesting that it was migrating from the Indian areas to the Cambodian area ('flying east'). And if they do this, then wouldn't passing over areas near Bangkok be a regular thing?

Distribution​

E Nepal, N India (modern-day records only from Assam Valley, W Bengal, Bihar, and E Uttar Pradesh) and N Bangladesh, and Indochina (principally in Cambodia); breeding now probably restricted to Assam, Bihar and Cambodia

Indeed the e-Bird range map (also from Cornell University) is more generous - and seems to have records from Thailand (in which case no records from the area you suggest would be strange) - but the e-Bird map still seems to suggest two disjunct populations without migration between them.

Just for interest and personal education, I wonder if anyone with knowledge of the area has any information or opinions on this?

I am not an e-Bird user, but perhaps those who are users in the east Asia region might have comments?

 

[Indobirder]

I would be interested to know where you think it was migrating from and to?

I just meant in the general sense. I.e. it's on the move, not foranging or staying in the same area. I know [basically] nothing about these birds, and I agree that if there was a known migration route, people would be observing them as they take it.

From the sparse eBird records that do exist it does seem that these birds spread out a bit during the winter, so perhaps this is a bird that strayed from Cambodia (as that seems the most likely place for a Greater to have come from). As to where it is now, who knows. If it came from Cambodia, my suspicion is that it would return there at some point.

I wonder how many studies have been done and/or if any of them have been radio tagged.

 

[MacNara]

Yes, I was surprised to find it was endangered - perhaps the same poisoning that vultures in India are suffering from?

I was also surprised how little information (and photos) I could find online (at least in a quick search). I thought that an endangered bird of this size and nature would have lots of research done on it.

I hope (just for information purposes) that someone who does know about this species sees the thread and comments.

Regards,

MacNara

 

[S_Man]

The map on the IUCN website suggests a "possible" presence (and movements, looking at all these close patches) in this area. You need to click on a checkbox to display the range on the map... not sure what their sources are, BirdLife is mentioned with other groups.

 

[MacNara]

IUCN Map from S-Man