Spring migration : slowly but surely

Spring is an exciting time of year as tons of birds make their way through East Tonkin to their breeding grounds in China, Russia... Spring birding in Hanoi is not about quantity of birds but rather about quality, diversity - if you devote enough time and perseverance.

Recent short strolls on my favorite wooded and scrubby patches along the Red River produced some nice photo opportunities of some fine examples of different (but expected) migrants/winter visitors.

Birds included, among other, a mixed flock of Grey-backed and Japanese Thrushes, one female Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, some Hainan Blue Flycatchers, one flock of Ashy Minivets, 2 Rufous-tailed Robins, dozens of "Blyth’s Leaf Warbler" cf P. claudiae and some Sulphur-breasted Warblers and best of all: a fleeting glimpse of a Pale-footed Bush Warbler - a good local rarity (hmmm, maybe not…).  This species is extremely shy and is a great skulker. I just realized that I have overlooked it for a long time. During winter it is almost impossible to locate but in spring its typical song helps to find it easily. It is a loud, explosive zip..zip-tschuk-o-tschuk which reminds me of the one of the Cetti’s Warbler - a well-known song amongst European birders. I located 2-3 songsters in scrubby grasslands along the Red River and caught a glimpse of one. It was impossible to get a clean view - leave alone a clean shot. But I took some recordings of call and song which I put on xeno-canto. I also heard 2 Manchurian Bush Warblers and 1 Siberian Rubythroat singing in thickets. Spring!

Apart from songbirds, I scored 1 fly-over Purple Heron, 1 Grey-headed Lapwing and 1 Eurasian Woodcock (flushed from just a few feet away as usual).

Song of two species of Bush Warblers recorded recently:

-the explosive one of the Pale-footed Bush Warbler

-the melodious one of the Manchurian Bush Warbler

Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher (f)

Black-naped Monarch (m)

Black-naped Monarch (m)

Hainan Blue Flycatcher (m)

Cyornis sp. Flycatcher (f)

Sulphur-breasted Warbler

Sulphur-breasted Warbler

"Blyth's Leaf Warbler" cf P. claudiae

Some other altitudinal migrants from Hanoi

After the Snowy-browed Flycatcher (see last post), some recent shots of 3 other altitudinal migrants, scarce at Hanoi : Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, Chestnut-crowned Warbler and White-tailed Robin. The latter was photographed in mid-October, the 2 other ones in the last few days.

male Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher - Botanical Gardens
Recorded a female last year in mid-January, in the same area of the park,  on the same trees almost same branches :))

Chestnut-crowned Warbler - Red River Island
Last year, sighted another one, in mid-October. Great bird for the city and below its lower altitudinal limit (Hanoi is at sea level).

White-tailed Robin - Botanical Gardens
Scarce but regular. Recorded every year in the city parks, from mid-October to December
This species is assumed to be a montane resident, although there is evidence of some movements during the non-breeding season. 

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

A little brightness amid the gloom

Another cold, grey and miserable winter month. I sometimes get obsessed by the crappiness of the winter weather in Hanoi. It can be so depressing. Fortunately there are always some nice birds to brighten up the gloomy atmosphere. For example this stunning male Red-flanked Bluetail.

A little pedestrian...

I also enjoyed this week (7th -> 12th January) prolonged views of a gorgeous Scaly Thrush. What a pattern and hues this bird has ! When disturbed, it ran briefly and then stopped motionless. Very funny to watch it running instead of flying!

The camouflage is remarkable making it difficult to see even when you know it is here. Its very slow foraging behavior does not help. Other interesting facts about this species is that it prefers to walk than hop, and often patter its feet on the soil to encourage worms to the surface – I did not notice this behavior with the other Thrushes.

In the city parks Scaly Thrushes can be very tame. But in the forest, I found them skittish and difficult to approach. A really tough bird to shoot !

A bird that ends up in an inner-city park like the Botanical Gardens has 2 alternatives: get out or adapt. Adapt to a man-made environment and, above all, adapt to the presence of humans at close range. This park is packed from 6 to 9 am, 4 to 6 pm, with loud aerobic music, joggers and pedestrians everywhere... Probably not a high percentage of the individuals can accept this - only the less shy ones.
My Scaly Thrush found itself adapting. It had to become less secretive, less skittish.

For these reasons, ironically, it is sometimes much easier to shoot certain species within the city than in more natural habitats.

But my best bird of the first week of the year was this female Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, found at the Botanical Gardens. A great bird for the city.

Nice salmon bokeh! (this guy was in front of a wall, unfortunately...)

a much better background...

Cuu Thac - Tu Son, Hoa Binh Province, 27-11-2011

Hi all,

A very pleasant Sunday was spent birding in a semi-montaneous area, 70kms south-west of Hanoi.

This site (google map here) definitely has some potential, as there's an interesting mix of vegetation, including bamboo. Not much of a primary forest is left though.

We birded along the one trail, that is leading up to a few waterfalls. Some very nice species were seen. Amongst them the more notable were,

- Crested Serpent Eagle
- Blue Whistling Thrush
- White-capped Water Redstart
- Plumbeous Water Redstart
- at least 1 very late Mugimaki Flycatcher
- at least 1 nice male Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher
- lots of Verditer Flycatchers
- 1 smart 1st winter male Blue-and-White Flycatcher
- 1 splendid male Fujian Niltava
- White-crowned Forktail
- Slaty-backed Forktail
- Yellow-bellied Warbler
- Buff-breasted Babbler
- Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler
- Golden Babbler
- Spectacled Barwing
- Blue-winged Minla (Siva)
- Collared Babbler
- Silver-eared Mesia
- Black-throated Sunbird

A surprisingly good list for a totally unprotected site - it was actually better than Tam Dao most of the times! On the other hand, Tam Dao is not really protected either...

Cheers,

Jan de Groot, Wayne Hodgkinson (pictures), Falk Wicker

Crested Serpent Eagle

Blue Whistling Thrush

Blue-winged Minla

Fujian Niltava

Tam Dao NP, Water tank trail, 13-11-2011

Hi all,

An early morning visit to Tam Dao produced some nice species - even though a few hunters, campers and annoying Park "rangers" tried to get between us and the birds. In the end we succeeded!

Here the more notable species (amongst not many others),
- 1 or 2 Collared Owlets calling
- 1 juv. Grey-backed Shrike that was welcoming us at the Ranger station
- 1 bird looked suspiciously like a female Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush but views were too poor and short
- 1 female Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher- at least 1 White-crowned Forktail was heard
- quite a few Chestnut Bulbuls, also a few Black Bublbuls
- Mountain Tailorbird
- Sulphur-breasted Warbler
- a few flocks of laughingthrushes, probably Grey as well
- 2 Streaked Wren Babblers
- Red-billed Scimitar Babbler, heard only
- a fine pair of White-browed Shrike Babblers
- Black-chinned and Striated Yuhinas
- 1 or 2 Olive-backed Pipits
- 1 Fire-breasted Flowerpecker
- 1 female Fork-tailed Sunbird
- 1 Streaked Spiderhunter

We were really lucky with the weather as it started getting very foggy, just as we were heading back to Hanoi.
Even though my companions didn't seem to really believe me, but this was a good, above-average birding trip to Tam Dao!

Cheers,
Falk Wicker, Frank Momberg, John Parr

Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher and Jerdon's Baza on the Red River Island

A good morning (12 April 2011) on the Red River Island produced Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher (male) and a perched Jerdon's Baza! Neither were birds I expected to see in Hanoi. More expected were:
Black-naped Monarch 2
Taiga Flycatcher 1
Hainan Blue Flycatcher 7
Ashy Drongo 1
Eastern Crowned Warbler 1
Sulphur-breasted Warbler 1
Y-brow 30
Little Bunting 2
Japanese Sparrowhawk

Back at home, Oriental Honey Buzzards were passing north at a rate of approximately 3 per hour.

Simon