This morning dawned, bright and warm as usual. Summer is still clearly in full swing, with not many birds caught today.

However, this didn’t stop us from catching some interesting species, such as this Brown-flanked Bush Warbler! This species is seldom seen due to their small size and secretive nature, preferring to stick to the low undergrowth. This individual was clearly a young, first calendar year individual that has just begun moulting what is most likely to be a complete summer moult. This means that by Autumn will not be able to tell the adults and juveniles apart based on plumage.

Next up was another of our resident birds- a Common Tailorbird! This individual was a recapture, after being originally ringed back in June of this year. We can see that it is currently carrying out a summer complete moult, with moult limits in both the wing and the tail. However, the lack of any juvenile feathers (i.e the old feathers are also of adult-type), we can conclude that this bird is a 2nd calendar year or older (adult).

As the afternoon drew on, our next individual turned out to be yet another Hainan Blue Flycatcher!

This turned out to be an interesting individual. With a lack of moult limits in the wing, this individual appeared to be a 2nd calendar year or older, and a female, due to the lack of blue in the plumage.

As aforementioned, the moult strategy of the Hainan Blue Flycatcher is not well understood, but this individual appears to have retained juvenile tail feathers (noted by the difference in shape and denity of the old feathers compared to the new, growing central pair of tail feathers), suggesting this is actually a bird in it’s 2nd calendar year- meaning it must have been born last year. However, we need to collect more evidence to be certain of this conclusion.

Finally, we ended up with three Grey-chinned Minivets! This was especially nice, as we do not catch so many of this species. Two of the three individuals we caught were all adult females. By assessing the newly moulted feathers of our first individual, which was determined to be in its 1st calendar year (i.e. born this year), we can conclude that this individual was also a female.

Overall, a very nice and productive 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.*