Back in the Paddyfields today, with another calm, and finally nicely cooler morning!
First up were two of my personal favourites: Bluethroats! These two were great examples of 1st calendar year birds (moult strategy; Adults SC, juveniles Sp), with both showing 8 juvenile GCs, and the innermost two moulted and postjuvenile. However, we can see from the extent of the blue, rufous and black in the top bird that this must be a young male, while the 2nd individual shows almost no blue, and thus, must be a 1st calendar year female!
Next up was our gorgeous bitey residents- the Long-tailed Shrike! These guys have quite a complex moult strategy, different from most of our others. Adults and juveniles carry out a Winter Complete moult (but frequently “forget” some feathers), and then carry out Summer partial moults, with varying degrees of restriction. This is quite complicated, but essentially what this means in Autumn is that if we see any juvenile feathers (which are fairly obvious to identify in Shrikes), it will be a 1st calendar year, and if there is no obvious moult limits, it is a 2nd calendar year or older.
However, the slightly more tricky thing about these guys is that some 2nd calendar year birds in Autumn can retain some juvenile feathers from their birth, in the last year’s Summer. Generally, this will just be one or two feathers though, in comparison to the predominately juvenile-feathered covered 1st calendar years (and the feathers will be incredibly worn, since they are over a year old).
Most importantly, for this individual, nothing juvenile can be identified, and thus, we will age this is a 2nd calendar year or older! What a beautiful bird!
Daily Totals
| Species | Original | Recapture |
| Bluethroat | 3 | 0 |
| Chestnut-eared Bunting | 2 | 0 |
| Chinese Pond Heron | 1 | 0 |
| Dusky Warbler | 2 | 1 |
| Eurasian Tree Sparrow | 2 | 0 |
| Little Bunting | 3 | 0 |
| Long-tailed Shrike | 1 | 0 |
| Scaly-breasted Munia | 1 | 0 |
| Stejneger’s Stonechat | 0 | 1 |
| White-rumped Munia | 2 | 0 |
| Yellow-breasted Bunting | 2 | 0 |
| Zitting Cisticola | 4 | 0 |
| Grand Total | 23 | 2 |
*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.*
