Annnnd we’re back! It’s been over a month since we’ve been able to do some proper ringing, thanks to the incredibly sporadic weather we’ve been experiencing here in Hong Kong. But at last, as peace decided to descend through the clouds, we made our daybreak journey to the forest!

Summer is already in full swing here, and the light hike to camp already had sweat dripping from our backs as we cursed the persistent mosquitos. A sort of calm after the storm seemed to have come over the forest- the lack of birdsong like some sort of foreshadower of the day to come…

First up were two juveniles of our most colourful residents: the Silver-eared Mesia! A common forest bird here, Silver-eared Mesia’s have established self-sustaining populations from escaped cage birds, originally brought to Hong Kong from Southeast Asia.

Regarding ageing, it is thought that both adults and juveniles carry out complete Summer moults after breeding or fledging respectively. This leaves just the iris colour for ageing. Adults typically show a dark red iris (as can be seen in 2022/07/14- Forest Ringing: Attack of the Wasps), while juveniles display a more chocolate brown tone to the iris, as can be seen in the individuals above and below.

Interestingly, both of these individuals had not yet begun their postjuvenile moult, with both the wing and tail being uniformally juvenile. These juvenile feathers are characteristically loose and of a lesser quality than their moulted postjuvenile feathers will be!

Our slow, hot day continued with few birds, but as the afternoon wore on, we were lucky enough to catch one more beautiful juvenile! This young male Hainan Blue Flycatcher ended our day on a high! He had already begun his postjuvenile moult, with some blue body feathers shining through an otherwise brown and spotty juvenile plumage.

Juvenile Flycatchers typically carry out a Summer partial moult, including body feathers, Lesser and Median Coverts, and some Greater Coverts. In this individual, we can see that there are no moult limits in the wing, and all feathers are juvenile.

All juvenile Hainan Blue Flycatchers have distinctly blue tail feathers that are pointed, narrow and not as good quality (i.e. dark and dense) as adults.

A hot yet rewarding day!

Daily Totals

*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.*