Commencing Autumn Migration

 It really know it is autumn when you start seeing Yellow-rumped Flycatchers, they are one of our most typical autumn migrants passing through Hong Kong. Being a small and rather inconspicuous flycatcher, they can be difficult to locate in the forest, luckily for us, the urban gem of Ho Man Tin provides this perfect migrant trap and we get to see them there almost every year with relative ease. A male was spotted by my friends, but unfortunately I was about an hour too late, by the time I got there only the female showed. Funnily enough, I already got this species on my year list this year, as I found one at Jordan Valley in spring, still they are great birds to start the season with.

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - female

I paid Tai Po Kau a visit, hoping to find an Amur Paradise Flycatcher or two, to my disappointment none showed for me. A good selection of resident birds were present, including a relatively friendly Bay Woodpecker which I suspect maybe the same ringed individual I got months ago. 

Bay Woodpecker - male

A very friendly Pygmy Cupwing made its rounds, this skulking species can sometimes be tough to see well, so to get one perched in the open for so long is always a treat. It took a while to locate any bird waves, I checked for Amur Paradise Flycatchers constantly but got nothing, only a few Yellow-cheeked Tits were friendly enough to allow for any decent photos.

Pygmy Cupwing

Yellow-cheeked Tit - female

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

An immature Slaty-backed Forktail been seen along the stream at Tai Po Kau lately, its been well over 20 years since I last seen a Slaty-backed Forktail at this site, they used to be a regular visitor to the stream here, although they can still be regularly found and likely breeding at Shing Mun. My guess is that this young bird is an offspring of the Shing Mun birds and dispersing to suitable habitat, hopefully they will take root here again.

Slaty-backed Forktail - immature

An interesting non-bird observation of late was this Carrion Beetle, Diamesus osculans. It was found near a Burmese Python carcass, we took so e photos of it away from the carcass first, but what strikes me was its stench! The beetle itself smelled extremely unpleasant, with a strong odour of ammonia. It was later found feeding on the carcass on our way out. Carrion Beetles are not that common in Hong Kong, probably due to the fact that ants and flies are much more dominant in warmer climates, therefore relatively slow growing beetles probably have a harder time competing with them.

Diamesus osculans

Diamesus osculans feeding on Burmese Python carcass

Also took sometime to photograph an interesting species of plant, the Common Swamp Pitcher-plant, Nepenthes mirabilis. This is our only pitcher-plant species found in Hong Kong, and a relatively widespread species globally. They can be found along small stream or swampy areas with little shade. As a carnivorous plant, its modified leaf act as a trap with sweet scent lined along the opening to attract insects to it, once the insects fallen in there is no escape, and the digestive liquid within the pitcher will provide nutrients for the plant, allowing it to grow even in poor soil.

Common Swamp Pitcher-plant - Nepenthes mirabilis

Last Week of January - Shing Mun Reservoir

Shing Mun had been getting quite a lot of attention of late, with some good birds here and there, the site is good but good bird waves can be difficult to locate, though even when you don't get a good bird wave, sitting by the stream usually give you good views of the now very stable Slaty-backed Forktail, which is still a rare bird in Hong Kong in its own rights. It seems to be fairly comfortable with people now, as long as you sit quite still, it often come in quite close.

 

Slaty-backed Forktail

The lovely Rhodoleia are now flowering, attracting numerous birds, Orange-bellied Leafbirds being one of the most notable wherever you get a Rhodoleia tree, at Shing Mun a pair of these colourful birds have marked this particular tree as their territory, both the male and female showed well.

Orange-bellied Leafbird - male

Orange-bellied Leafbird - female

Along the stream numerous Thrushes came in to drink, if you sit still enough they will come out from the dense vegetation and into the open. Other birders have had luck with other less common species but I only had good views of Japanese Thrushes of both sexes and different age.

Japanese Thrush - male

Japanese Thrush - female

Japanese Thrush - 1CY male

While we usually get more Grey-backed Thrushes than other species, this year Japanese Thrush seems to be the dominant species, with far fewer Grey-backed than usual, quite a few came to the stream to drink.

Grey-backed Thrush

Huet's Fulvettas and Grey-chinned Minivets are numerous within bird waves, along with other common species, while I found a single Eastern Crowned Warbler within them, an increasingly common winter visitor in Hong Kong. Red-billed Blue Magpies also frequent the area.

Huet's Fulvetta

Grey-chinned Minivet - female

Eastern Crowned Warbler

Red-billed Blue Magpie

Other interesting species I encountered includes a very vocal Alstrom's Warbler which only gave fleeting views, but the best species I saw there was no doubt a few Black-throated Tits! This is locally a very scarce species, I have seen them many years ago at Kowloon Hill Fitness Trail and Tai Po Kau, but have not been able to connect with them in recent years. I found a few within a small bird wave, although they remained quite high up and difficult to photograph, they still completely made my day!

Black-throated Tit - one of the cutest looking bird in Hong Kong!

One species that we experienced a huge influx this winter is the Kloss's Leaf Warblers, where we have had widespread records throughout much of New Territories. I managed to locate one at Tai Lam where it was very vocal within the bird wave. Whether this species had been under recorded in the past or we are getting more of them wintering remains to be seen, but they certainly makes scanning for warblers that much more exciting in the winter months! There were also quite a few Black Bulbuls at Tai Lam, which makes this one of the most reliable sites to look for this species in Hong Kong.

Kloss's Leaf Warbler

Black Bulbul

At my local patch things remains much the same, with the pair of Grey Bushchats still fairly 'showy', the only new addition for this winter were two Black-naped Monarch which only showed briefly.

Grey Bushchat - female

Black-naped Monarch - female

I tried my luck at Nam Chung one evening for owls but failed miserably as expected...I was however rewarded with a rather confiding Leopard Cat! I saw its eye-shine from afar and first thought it was a domesticated cat, but upon looking through my binoculars I was shocked to see a beautifully marked creature sitting in the middle of the road! It later came closer and sat quietly towards the side, where I had brilliant views for at least 10 minutes! It later ran across the road and disappeared up the slope. 

Leopard Cat

Quest for Silver Oriole

Silver Oriole - One of the star species of Guangdong's forests

The Silver Oriole is a relatively little known species that breeds in southern China and over winters in mainland South East Asia. It is listed as Endangered due to their limited range and heavy habitat loss of the tropical and sub-tropical forest throughout their range. They are probably one of the rarest breeding species in Guangdong, being rather elusive and not often seen. It is estimated that their global population is no more around 2000 individuals and decreasing.

I've been to Nanling in the past where they are most often recorded but failed to locate them. Last year having heard the news of a pair of Silver Orioles breeding at Liuxihe National Forest Park, I really wanted to give it a try this year. Sure enough, around mid May we got news that the pair had returned to the exact same location! Captain and Kei decided to go on the 25th of May, which I unfortunately had work. Luckily I was able to join another group organised by Principal Kwok. We wanted to get there as early as possible, so we met at 3am and transferred to the Huanggang Cross-boundary shuttle buses to go over the border, where we met with our driver at 4am. Weather was not looking particularly good, we could only hope that the heavy rain ease off by day break...

A quick nap in the van and we arrived at Liuxihe in just two and a half hours! We got off at a restaurant where the footpath up hill is located just to the back. Luckily for us, the weather did improve and we were able to remain dry for the rest of our journey!

Road next to hiking trail entrance

The location of the Silver Oriole is roughly at (23.742036, 113.843287), you can access the area through a footpath from behind the restaurant at the base of the hill, the hike is not particularly difficult, it took us just less than 40 minutes to get to the dam where the Silver Orioles are nesting.

Map of route taken

With most of us not getting any good sleep the night before, we were finding the path much tougher than it should have been, but we managed in the end. The footpath cuts through some beautiful bamboo forest, I was expecting Chinese Bamboo Partridges to be abundant here but surprisingly we got none in the morning.

Beautiful bamboo forest

We arrived at the dam just past 7am. Just as everyone were still getting their cameras ready, a saw a bird flew in from the right side, it had dark head, grey body and a red tail! It was surely a Silver Oriole! It flew in and perched on top of a bamboo where I was able to confirm it as a female due to the streaky underparts.

On top of the dam

Silver Oriole - Target achieved in less than a minute after arriving!

It was an incredible rush to be able to find our target species so quickly! A few minutes later the male also appeared and perched a little further away. This was the only perched view we had of the male during our time here.

Silver Oriole - male

For the next few hours we had good views of the female occasionally perching out on top of a bamboo, the male also flew past a few times. Views were not exactly close, even with my 500mm lens with 1.4x extender my image still needed a heavy crop, but Chun brought with him a scope, so we were able to get top views.

Silver Oriole - female

During our time there the adults never returned to the actual nest, which probably meant the young had already fledged and is somewhere nearby, sure enough Chun found the fledgling perched in one of the tall trees. The adults were feeding their young at the interval of around 15 - 20 minutes. Sightings of fledglings are not common, so we felt very fortunate to have been able to witness it! The adult brought in various of prey items, including caterpillars, cicadas and fruits.

Female with caterpillar

Female with fruit

Silver Oriole - recently fledged young

Other birds in the area while we waited included a few Slaty-backed Forktails and a juvenile Plumbeous Redstart, although both were quite far away. We also had a Black Eagle which only showed briefly, another fairly scarce species throughout Guangdong, Liuxihe is likely the most southerly limits of this species we known of so far.

Slaty-backed Forktail

Plumbeous Redstart - juvenile

Indochinese Yuhinas were quite abundant and we encountered several flocks. Black Bulbuls were also in good numbers as expected, along with Chestnut Bulbuls, Grey Treepies and Hair-crested Drongos.

Indochinese Yuhina

Black Bulbul

As we descended I spotted a Hill Prinia singing on an open branch, this is the closest encounter I've had with this species. Hill Prinias seemed pretty widespread in a few forest sites at Guangdong, including Gutian, but absent from Hong Kong. Whether this species can spread to Hong Kong remains to be seen.

Hill Prinia

Just before we got back to the restaurant, James spotted a flock of Black-throated Tits, a charismatic species of Guangdong's forests, relatively rare in Hong Kong where they are still seen occasionally. We had fairly good views of these cute birds.

Black-throated Tit

We had a brilliant lunch at the restaurant, while we were there we also noticed a House Swift nest just under the terrace, which provided very close up views, in Hong Kong this species usually nest on much taller buildings, so it's unusual to be able to see their nest up close.

House Swift - at nest

Our van departed at around 1pm, the way back to Shenzhen took slightly longer due to traffic, but we were able to get back to Shenzhen Huanggang Border at just around 4pm. It just shows such day trips from Hong Kong can be extremely productive, and open up a lot of relatively unexplored or under-birded areas in southern Guangdong. A huge thanks to Principal Kwok for organising the logistics for the trip, and it was extremely enjoyable with all the company of fellow birding friends.

Trip List:

1. Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) 
2. Asian Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica) 
3. Large Hawk-Cuckoo (Hierococcyx sparverioides) 
4. Lesser Cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus) 
5. Indian Cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus) 
6. Black Eagle (Ictinaetus malaiensis) 
7. Collared Owlet (Glaucidium brodiei) 
8. Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) 
9. Great Barbet (Psilopogon virens) 
10. Chinese Barbet (Psilopogon faber) 
11. Speckled Piculet (Picumnus innominatus) 
12. Bay Woodpecker (Blythipicus pyrrhotis) 
13. Grey-chinned Minivet (Pericrocotus solaris) 
14. Scarlet Minivet (Pericrocotus speciosus) 
15. Silver Oriole (Oriolus mellianus)  -  A pair feeding a recently fledged young
16. Hair-crested Drongo (Dicrurus hottentottus) 
17. Grey Treepie (Dendrocitta formosae) 
18. Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 
19. Japanese Tit (Parus minor) 
20. Black-throated Tit (Aegithalos concinnus) 
21. Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) 
22. Chinese Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis sinensis) 
23. Black Bulbul (Hypsipetes leucocephalus) 
24. Chestnut Bulbul (Hemixos castanonotus)  
25. Common Tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius) 
26. Hill Prinia (Prinia superciliaris) 
27. Indochinese Yuhina (Yuhina torqueola)  
28. Swinhoe's White-eye  (Zosterops simplex)
29. Rufous-capped Babbler (Cyanoderma ruficeps) 
30. Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler (Pomatorhinus ruficollis) 
31. Huet's Fulvetta (Alcippe hueti)  
32. Chinese Hwamei (Garrulax canorus) 
33. Oriental Magpie-Robin (Copsychus saularis) 
34. Slaty-backed Forktail (Enicurus schistaceus) 
35. Plumbeous Redstart (Phoenicurus fuliginosus) 
36. Crested Myna (Acridotheres cristatellus) 
37. Fork-tailed Sunbird (Aethopyga christinae) 
38. Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus)