Another warm day today brought the mosquitos back to the forest, but thankfully the abundance of nice species was enough to make up for our bites!
First up, we started with a very young individual, who was in almost complete juvenile plumage. This little brown bird is a young Lesser Shortwing! Lesser Shortwings like to spend most of their time in the dense undergrowth, and thus are more likely to be heard singing their wobbly, melodic song than seen.
Throughout the day, we ended up with 3 Rufous-capped Babblers! This species is a very small, but very headstrong little character, and notouriously hard to age. However, using skull pneumatisation (where we part the head feathers to see the stage of development the skull is in- more in The Art of Ageing and Sexing Birds), we can find juveniles by the incomplete development of the skull.
As the afternoon drew on, we were surprised with a very nice species- a Bay Woodpecker! This is just the fifth individual we have ever caught, and the first since 2019. Again, it is another species with little information on how to age, and thus we settled on ageing this individual as a 1st calendar year or older. However, due to the patch of red on the back of its neck, we can conclude that this is a male.
Our next individual caught was this beautiful Huet’s Fulvetta. We catch many of these, and this paticualr bird has been with us 4 times since it’s first capture in November 2021, as a juvenile. Now it is a fully grown adult that has almost finished its Summer complete moult. Note the red hue to the iris (adult-type), and growing 2nd primary.
Finally, we has one last nice surprise of the day, in the form of a Blue-winged Minla! A colourful end to an interesting day!
Daily Totals
| Species | Original | Recapture |
| Bay Woodpecker | 1 | 0 |
| Blue-winged Minla | 1 | 0 |
| Common Tailorbird | 1 | 0 |
| Huet’s Fulvetta | 0 | 1 |
| Lesser Shortwing | 1 | 0 |
| Mountain Bulbul | 1 | 1 |
| Rufous-capped Babbler | 3 | 0 |
*Please note that all wild birds, their nests, and eggs are highly protected (under Wild Animals Protection Ordinate, Cap. 170) in Hong Kong. It is an offence to wilfully disturb, take, remove, or injure wild birds or their nests/eggs. The actions described here were undertaken by trained professionals holding the necessary licenses and permits issued by the AFCD.*
