We begun today as usual, bright and early. However, it didn’t take us long to realise that the seasons had finally begun to change. As soon as the sun peaked above the horizon, we became surrounded by the calls of Yellow-breasted Buntings and the flash of Little Buntings among the reeds. The Buntings are officially back!
And what a day it ended up being! We ended with a total of 9 Bunting species, including a beautiful adult male Yellow-breasted Bunting, a Rustic Bunting and two Yellow-browed Buntings!
Even more excitingly, we ended up with a Pallas’ Reed Bunting, and another, similar looking bird. This similar bird (above) appeared like the Pallas’, but with a darker pattern to the crown, distinct supercilium and dark ear coverts. The overall feel of the bird was more pale- all characteristics pointing to a Japanese Reed Bunting! These are extraordinarily scarce vagrants to Hong Kong, with just a handful of sightings this far south!
The day continued with a couple of beautiful Red-throated Pipits! Pipits are notoriously difficult to age, due to moult limits being tricky to spot, usually being found in the Lesser and Median Coverts.
Next up was a gorgeous adult male Red Turtle Dove! Though we usually catch a couple of this species every year, it is always nice to be able to admire the beauty of these little doves!
As the sun grew stronger and the morning wore on, another nice bird arrived; a beautiful male bluethroat! This was a 1st calendar year bird, as could be identified buy the moult limit in the Greater Coverts, which would not be present in the adults. Furthermore, the extreme amount of blue, black and rufous in the throat and breast allowed us to determine that this was a young male. Interestingly, this young bird was also displaying active moult in the tail- something we don’t usually see in our Bluethroats. A fantastic day!
Daily Totals
| Species | Original | Recapture |
| Black-browed Reed Warbler | 5 | 0 |
| Black-faced Bunting | 3 | 0 |
| Bluethroat | 1 | 0 |
| Chestnut Bunting | 3 | 0 |
| Chestnut-eared Bunting | 64 | 8 |
| Chinese Penduline Tit | 9 | 0 |
| Dusky Warbler | 8 | 2 |
| Eurasian Tree Sparrow | 13 | 0 |
| Little Bunting | 71 | 1 |
| Oriental Reed Warbler | 1 | 1 |
| Pallas’s Reed Bunting | 1 | 0 |
| Red Turtle Dove | 1 | 0 |
| Red-throated Pipit | 2 | 0 |
| Rustic Bunting | 1 | 0 |
| Scaly-breasted Munia | 1 | 0 |
| Spotted Dove | 2 | 0 |
| Stejneger’s Stonechat | 1 | 0 |
| White Wagtail | 3 | 0 |
| White-rumped Munia | 2 | 0 |
| Yellow-bellied Prinia | 2 | 0 |
| Yellow-breasted Bunting | 83 | 0 |
| Yellow-browed Bunting | 2 | 0 |
| Zitting Cisticola | 4 | 0 |
| Japanese Reed Bunting | 1 | 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 willfully 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.*
