We’re back in the paddyfields for another busy morning of Buntings and Pipits! However, the day was not without its wonderful highlights!
First up was a gorgeous little Manchurian Reed Warbler! This is not such a common visitor to our nets, and a particularly difficult species to age. As with many Reed Warbler species, both adults and juveniles moult Summer Complete, meaning we need other characteristics after completion. This individual shows a juvenile type iris, with a cold-brown tone.
Next up was an even rarer visitor to our nets, a Eurasian Skylark! These guys are well known to be the singers of the skies, and wonderful characters! They are celebrated as the coming of Spring across Europe, but can be seen all the way East to Japan. These guys also all carry out Summer Complete moults, and, as of yet, don’t seem to have any characteristics that can differentiate the adults and juveniles upon completion. Therefore, this individual was aged as a 1st calendar year or older.
Finally, we ended with a gorgeous Red-throat Flycatcher. In Autumn, most males do not show their telltale red throats that they will display in Spring. Therefore we focus on purely ageing. In this species, like most flycatchers, adults moult Summer Complete, while juveniles moult Summer partial, ending up with moult limits in the Greater Coverts. In this individual, we can see the outermost 6 GCs are a dull brown, worn, with pale tips. We can differentiate these from the innermost 4 dark, dense and glossy (moulted) GCs. Therefore, we can determine that this is a 1st calendar year bird. A nice morning!
Daily Totals
| Species | Original | Recapture |
| Black-browed Reed Warbler | 1 | 0 |
| Chestnut-eared Bunting | 5 | 3 |
| Chinese Pond Heron | 1 | 0 |
| Dusky Warbler | 23 | 3 |
| Eurasian Skylark | 1 | 0 |
| Eurasian Tree Sparrow | 8 | 0 |
| Greater Painted-snipe | 1 | 0 |
| Little Bunting | 1 | 0 |
| Manchurian Reed Warbler | 1 | 0 |
| Plain Prinia | 1 | 0 |
| Red-throated Flycatcher | 1 | 0 |
| Red-throated Pipit | 1 | 0 |
| Stejneger’s Stonechat | 3 | 1 |
| White Wagtail | 5 | 1 |
| White-rumped Munia | 1 | 0 |
| Yellow-bellied Prinia | 1 | 0 |
| Yellow-breasted Bunting | 9 | 0 |
| Zitting Cisticola | 3 | 2 |
| Grand Total | 66 | 10 |
s 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.*
