Narcissus Flycatchers galore !

Hi all,

Below some shots of migrants taken recently at Hanoi. The highlight was a Narcissus Flycatcher, which is the third one recorded this spring in the city! And all of them seen in the same patch – amazing! 

I also photographed the same day, amongst other, a female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, a female Mugimaki Flycatcher and a Blue-throated Flycatcher - all of them lifer! Some days before, at Thanh Tri district, I encountered a Crow-billed Drongo, which is also a great bird for the city.

We have definitely a great patch for migrant birds!

Le Viet Tuan Hoang

 male Narcissus Flycatcher - 19th April
a careful examination revealed that this is a different male from the 2 others seen over the last few weeks

 female Mugimaki Flycatcher

female Yellow-rumped Flyctacher

female-type Black-naped Monarch

male Blue-throated Flycatcher (cf klossi race)

Sebastien : This Blue-throated F. showing a light orangey wash on breast and a white throat triangle puzzles me. I have found no indication of a similar taxon further north (e.g. in China). One thing is certain: it is a passage migrant in Hanoi, in both passage periods, but in small numbers (4-5 sightings in 4 years for my part).

Some have identified it as a pale variant/morph of the klossi race - the latter considered as a southern Indochina endemic (and resident). This migrant must, in all likelihood, come from China so has a very distinct breeding range.

Seicercus sp. Warbler

Crow-billed Drongo
Already recorded in spring 2014 so, in all likelihood, passage migrant 

Green-backed Flycatcher - 21th April

This scarce passage migrant in Vietnam was previously known as a race of the Narcissus Flycatcher. It was subsequently split to a full species and named Green-backed Flycatcher (Ficedula elisae). It is also known as Chinese Flycatcher or Elise's Flycatcher in some other references. Some authors still prefer to retain this species as a sub-species of Narcissus Flycatcher (Ficedula narcissina).
This female-type (a term used here to describe all females, and also immature males that have yet to develop any obviously- male features) was photographed on 21/4 at Hanoi.

Very helpful are the notes on identification of Narcissus Flycatchers

http://www.birdskorea.org/Birds/Identification/ID_Notes/BK-ID-Narcissus-Flycatchers-types.shtml.

Whether immature male or female, confident identification of this individual as elisae can be based on e.g. the olive-green upperparts ; the obvious yellow wash to the underparts (ruling out narcissina) ; the obvious and evenly yellow eye-ring (typically rather more two-toned in narcissina); and on its structure - a combination of heavy bill and medium-length primary projection (with 7 primary tips visible from the rear on the left wing).

The yellowish rump suggest this might perhaps be a second calendar-year male.

One second before it flew off towards a prey...

Four great Flycatchers on my patch - 12th April

Last week, after warm temperatures, winter weather was back. Cloudy skies, north wind and rain are good conditions for fallouts - flocks of birds forced to the ground by bad weather during migration - but not for nice photos, that's why I didn't go out birding (lazy birder!).
Sunday 12th April the sun finally came back out and I went out to my favorite Hanoi's patch for some migrant action, and despite the limited time, I still came away with a very nice selection of flycatchers, among them 2 Blue-and-white, 1 Brown-breasted, 2 Mugimaki and 1 male Narcissus - the latter obviously different from the one found 12 days ago! All spotted in a ca 200m x 150m area.

male Mugimaki Flycatcher

                                                    male Blue-and-white Flycatcher

Perched quite high and flew down to the "forest" floor to catch small invertebrate prey

Brown-breasted Flycatcher
Imagine you are a tiny bug...

My other sightings at Hanoi : 27th August 2010, 9th September 2010, 16th October 2010, 27th March 2012, 23th September 2012. Regular, but scarce passage migrant.

Close-up...

Narcissus Flycatcher
Listed as vagrant in Vietnam (Robson). But certainly (scarce) passage migrant in East Tonkin.

It is a second calendar-year male, told by the patchy brown on the nape and on the flight feathers - see site of Birdskorea/ID-Notes-Narcissus Flycatcher. Compare with the full adult of my last post.

More photos of migrants soon!

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!

Spring Migration : Some Hanoi Stuff

Spring migration is in full spring, and Hanoi’s parks & wooded/scrubby patches are great places to experience this. In large forests, things are much more “diluted”, I must say... Any park or garden can provide a stopover point for migrating birds and as the city continues to swallow up patches of greenery, these oases of habitat will become ever-increasingly important to passage migrants, making it even more likely that rare migrants can be found....

3-4 strolls (7-10 April) produced a nice selection of migrants/winter visitors, among them 2 lifers*, with highlights being (all at Bãi đá sông Hồng, northern tip of the Red River Island):

-1 male Narcissus Flycatcher (PM)

-1 Hodgson’s Hawk Cuckoo (PM)*

-1 Chestnut-winged Cuckoo (PM)

-1 Ruby-cheeked Sunbird (? Status uncertain but certainly not R)*

PM : passage migrant

W: winter visitor

R: resident

And all the usual stuff at this period of the year:

-Blue Whistling Thrush (PM+W), Eye-browed (PM) and White’s Thrushes (PM+W). Wintering Thrushes numbers have mostly decreased rapidly since mid-March

-Small flocks of Ashy and Spangled Drongos (both PM), Ashy Minivets (PM)

-Black-naped Monarch (PM), in mixed flocks with many phylloscs (“Blyth” (lato sensu), Eastern-crowned, Yellow-browed...)

-In the understorey, some Radde’s, Dusky Warblers, Pale-legged/Sakhalin Leaf-Warblers

- Yellow-rumped (PM) and Mugimaki (PM+W) Flycatchers at all the patches. Numerous Taiga Flycatchers (PM+W), males in summer dress. Surprisingly very few Asian Brown (PM+W) and Hill/Chinese Blue Flycatchers.

-2 Large Hawk Cuckoos (PM) (with the Hodgson’s, nice surprise – 1st sighting for me at Hanoi! Much more difficult to see and photograph in forest!)

- 1 Dollarbird, certainly (scarce) PM here.

- In the open fields, a surprising Indian Roller around Vinh Thuy Bridge (rare sight in East Tonkin), flocks of Red-throated Pipits (PM+W), lone Burmese Shrikes (PM).

- Around water bodies, numerous Black-browed Reed-Warblers (PM), nice males Citrine Wagtails (PM+W) in summer dress et Eastern Yellow Wagtails (PM+W).

Black-browed Reed Warbler

Spangled Drongo

showing its erectile crest

 Black-naped Monarch, male

  Black-naped Monarch, female

 Dollardbird - scarce passage migrant at Hanoi (my 2nd record)

Eastern-crowned Warbler showing well its yellow vent

 Pale-legged/Sakhalin Leaf-Warbler

 Hodgson’s Hawk Cuckoo

 Large Hawk Cuckoo

 Asian Brown Flycatcher

A juicy male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - Botanical Gardens. 

better background...

 Ruby-cheeked Sunbird

 Eye-browed Thrush

Ashy Minivet

Another highlight of my strolls was this mating pair of Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) found in a carambola orchard.

This species is interesting for two reasons: first, it is listed (as Rare) in Vietnam's Red Data Book of threatened species (Vietnamese: Sách đỏ Việt Nam). Secondly, it is a magnificent creature with a wingspan of around 25-30 cm! It is the world's biggest moth, not by wingspan but by wing surface area. This mating pair was an amazing sight. To have an idea of its size, click here.

The caterpillars feed on the leaves of a wide range of trees, from the carambola to cinnamon, lime, pomelo, rambutan, guava, citrus fruits.

The wing tips are hooked and some say resemble a snake's head complete with eye, to scare off predators!

Its name in Vietnamese is Bướm khế (= carambola tree butterfly).