Hong Kong Airport ID needed (please!) (1 Viewer)

[colonelboris]

During a very brief stop-over in Hong Kong (before re-embarking on the thrombosis-inducing flight to Sydney), I managed to see a whole single bird species at the airport.
No pictures, I'm afraid, partially because I didn't fancy being beaten half-to-death by airport security and partially as they flew past to quickly. There were two of them together and they looked quite thrush-like and about the size and approximate shape of a Blackbird, although with shorter tails. The wingtips were well fingered to the point that the last primary feather was pointing slightly forwars when flapping, but the wings were wider across the base than a Blackbird. The bill looked a lighter colour, the rest of bird appearing very dark. The bills were moderately short and the wing beats weren't particularly deep.
Any ideas?
Cheers,

Tony

 

[colonelboris]

I also meant to add: "I wondered about Crested Myna, but I don't remeber seeing any white on the wings."

 

[Dong Bei]

Almost everything from your desription points toward some kind of Myna/Strarling(flying in a pair, at an airport). The white on the wings usually stands out pretty good though. I'm not sure if Eurasian Blackbird are common there but that would be a bit big for your desription. White-cheeked Starling? Regular Starling?

Tom

 

[Gretchen]

Unfortunately I've never been to the new airport, and always imagine it as some giant barren rock, so have no idea what's likely there. The MacK map certainly shows blackbird as a possibility for the general area - so that is vaguely possible, as is common myna, but I'm not aware of candidates matching all the description.

 

[MKinHK]

Blackbirds in HK are huge - half as big again as in UK and are very rare in August.

Crested Myna is more likely but it would be very strange to see the pale big and not the big white spots on the wings - which is the only thing from your description that does not fit. However on some angles in flight this can be a bit awkward to see. Crested Mynah would be my guess.

Cheers
Mike