Welcome to Vietnam Bird News

Bird news from Vietnam, from Vietnam's resident and visiting birders.

22 January 2013

Slaty-backed Flycatcher : 1st record for Vietnam?


HANOI : Yesterday (21th January), a noon stroll at the Botanical Gardens produced a good number of winterers : 1 Taiga, 1 female Rufous-gorgeted, 2-3 Asian Brown and 1 male Slaty-backed Flycatchers, 5 Japanese and 1 male Black-breasted Thrushes, 1 female Chinese Blackbird, 1 Blue Whistling Thrush, some Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers (heard), Yellow-browed and Dusky Warblers, 2 Red-Flanked Bluetails, small flocks of Olive-backed Pipits.

The highlight was this male Slaty-backed Flycatcher. When I put my bins on it, I knew immediately that it was a new species for me. Its uniform slaty upperparts, orange underparts and white tail base made it unmistakable.
Unfortunately, I just got some distant and rubbish shots :(
 
Without flash

With flash

In the 2009 edition of Robson this species is recorded as winter visitor in both Laos and Cambodia, but not in Vietnam. No reason why it couldn't turn up in northern Vietnam too !

female Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher

2 comments:

  1. Well, you really don't dissapoint Sebastien! Another really nice bird and great record! You're right, Robson does not show it for Vietnam. The birdlife factsheet does: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=6518&m=1, but I could not find info on specific records. Need to wait for Simon ;)
    Congrats and cheers,
    Florian

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another great record from our man in Hanoi! Great work Sebastien. I need to spend more time in Hanoi ...

    All the best,

    Richard

    ReplyDelete