{"id":6721,"date":"2025-07-17T11:23:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T03:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/2025-03-1314-forest-ringing-thrushes-normal-vs-laughing\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T17:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:06:12","slug":"2025-03-1314-forest-ringing-thrushes-normal-vs-laughing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/2025-03-1314-forest-ringing-thrushes-normal-vs-laughing\/","title":{"rendered":"2025\/03\/13\uff0614\uff0d\u68ee\u6797\u74b0\u8a8c\uff1a\u9d87\u9ce5\u2014\u2014\u666e\u901a\u8207\u7b11\u9d87\u3002"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We are back with our forest ringing in a cold and dry spring, and not super many birds, but some nice winter visitors!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2nd calendar year or older Black-throated Laughingthrush<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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2nd calendar year or older Black-throated Laughingthrush wing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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2nd calendar year or older Black-throated Laughingthrush tail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our first bird was not a winter visitor, but a very lovely resident- a Black-throated Laughingthrush! Laughingthrushes, though called ‘thrushes’ belong to an entirely different family than regular thrushes, a family known as Leiothrichidae<\/em>, which are known for their distinct, loud calls (hence the name ‘Laughing’ thrush). Most of our Laughingthrushes are resident to Hong Kong, while our thrushes are migratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This definitely affects their moult strategies. Our migratory thrushes usually follow the adult Summer Complete, juveniles summer partial pattern, while most of our Laughingthrushes seem to have Summer Complete moults in both adults and juveniles. This is probably due to the fact that juveniles are not in a hurry to migrate, so can take the time to feed up and replace all their feathers for the winter. For us, this means we cannot differentiate adults and juveniles by the autumn, meaning we must age this bird as a 2nd calendar year or older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3rd calendar or older male Japanese Thrush<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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3rd calendar or older male Japanese Thrush showing a uniform adult wing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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3rd calendar or older male Japanese Thrush tail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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3rd calendar year or older female Japanese Thrush<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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3rd calendar year or older female Japanese Thrush, showing a uniform wing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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3rd calendar year or older female Japanese Thrush tail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next up were two ‘true’ thrushes, a beautiful pair of Japanese Thrushes. These guys are winter visitors to Hong Kong but will migrate north in the spring to reach their breeding grounds in central China and Japan. Both individuals showed nice, uniform adult wings and tails (don’t let the female’s tail fool you, they naturally wear quickly due to being brushed across the forest floor while this bird forages). Therefore, both must be 3rd calendar year or older birds!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that the outermost right tail feather of the female has been moulted, having a darker and less worn appearance. Though we wouldn’t expect this in the standard moult strategy, this is not uncommon to see this when a bird accidentally loses a feather, maybe due to predation etc. But the fact that this feather is the same density and shape as the other feathers is actually a supporting factor in that this is an adult bird. If this was a postjuvenile feather it would show clear differences in shape and wear to the other feathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recaptured adult female Red-flanked Bluetail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Recaptured adult female Red-flanked Bluetail, showing a uniform wing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally, an old friend visited us again! This Red-flanked Bluetail was originally ringed last year and is still be in the area. We can see that she has a great quality, uniform wing lacking moult limits. Therefore, this must be an adult bird. As an adult, she lacks the blue plumage that covers the adult males of these species, therefore, this must be an adult female!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daily Totals<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Species<\/strong><\/td>Original<\/strong><\/td>Recapture<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Black-throated Laughingthrush<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
Chestnut Bulbul<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
Cinereous Tit<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td><\/tr>
Grey-backed Thrush<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
Huet’s Fulvetta<\/td>1<\/td>3<\/td><\/tr>
Japanese Thrush<\/td>5<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
Red-billed Leiothrix<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td><\/tr>
Red-flanked Bluetail<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
Rufous-capped Babbler<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
Silver-eared Mesia<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
Swinhoe’s White-eye<\/td>1<\/td><\/td><\/tr>
Grand Total<\/strong><\/td>11<\/strong><\/td>10<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

*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.*<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are back with our forest ringing in a cold and dry s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48522],"tags":[48552,48553,48554,48555,48556,48557,48558,48559,48560,48561,48562,48563,48564],"class_list":["post-6721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-march-2025","tag-animals","tag-asia","tag-birdbanding","tag-birdringing","tag-birds","tag-conservation","tag-ecology","tag-hongkong","tag-nature","tag-ornithology","tag-photography","tag-research","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6727,"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721\/revisions\/6727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkbwsblog.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}