Patch gold !

Sometimes there are lots of people at my favorite Hanoi’s patch, along the Red River (only 2km from the city center), but enough nature for little birds to find space. I was there on 1st April at noon when a luminous male Narcissus Flycatcher (without tail feathers...) passed through from its wintering grounds on Borneo and the Philippines towards its breeding grounds in NE China/Japan. 

A top quality patch bird but not a patch tick - I had a glimpse of another male in spring 2014 (also 1st week of April) but couldn’t get a picture. This is definitely the crème de la crème of migrant birds there!

That yellow eye-brow make a good detail separating it from Yellow-rumped Fly, a much more common bird in Vietnam.

Narcissus Flycatcher... Hard to think of a better name for such a gorgeous bird.  They do kind of swagger like they know it, too!

Migrating a such long distance without tail feathers must be a pretty difficult chore... Cố lên little bird nhé!