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!

White-browed Crake breeding in Hanoi

Although Craig Robson's guide mentions White-browed Crake as an "uncommon / locally common" resident southern species, occurring in Vietnam in Cochinchina, it was long known that they occur at least at Van Long Nature Reserve regularly. But in the swamp behind my house on Xuan Dieu in Hanoi they also occur. 

This is a shallow pond, oblong, but quite large, if all the time encroached upon by the surrounding houses. Part of it is used for floating vegetable cultivation, but the part behind my house is mostly covered in Water Hyacinth. In the autumn of 2013 I noticed White-browed Crake for the first time, but assumed it was a winter visitor. However, they have never left since. Quite vocal and territorial, there are now at least 4 pairs and already some time ago I thought one was an immature. But today we finally got definite proof of breeding. Two adults were balancing on the Water Hyacinths and when I checked with my binoculars why they were walking on top, rather than sneaking amongst, I noticed 3 small chicks, all covered in black down and still completely featherless, trying to make their way over the hyacinth leaves. Yes, White-browed Crake breeds in Hanoi!

Tom Kompier

A skulkers day

Below some shots of 3 fine skulkers taken Saturday, March 28, in good ol' Hanoi.

Pale-footed Bush Warbler, a shy and rarely seen inhabitant of thickest scrub

I finally managed to get some (poor quality...) shots of one individual attracted by playback (with  songs recently recorded in the same area), which unfortunately remained in thick cover. A master skulker!

As I wrote in my last post, I found 1,5 week ago several songsters along the Red River, in dense scrubs and tall rank grasslands with scattered scrub in clearings and edges of a small wooded patch.

Today, a "tape-and-wait" session led to the discovery of 4-5 individuals along a 200m section. As I never recorded the Pale-footed Bush Warbler in Hanoi in winter, it would be reasonable to consider them as passage migrants. But I strongly believe that this species is also present in winter. Skulking and silent birds are elusive and easily overlooked. Only singing males reveal their presence.

Asian Stubtail 

Striking supercilium with dark eye-stripe as Pale-footed Bush Warbler, but obvious structural differences

Siberian Blue Robin (m) 

Not a cryptically colored bird, but secretive and quite difficult to see well

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

Passage Migrants and Winter Visitors

Recent strolls in Hanoi (Bai Da Song Hong/ Xuan Phuong and Thanh Tri district) produced some nice songbirds. Some winter visitors like Siberian Rubythroat, Bluethroat or Black-faced Bunting, but also some early spring migrants like Hainan Blue Flycatcher. Spring is definitely here, temperatures are rising and it's the perfect time to get outdoors in search of migrants! 

Le Viet Tuan Hoang

Dusky Warbler

Verditer Flycatcher

Hainan Blue Flycatcher (m)

Siberian Rubythroat (m)

Black-faced Bunting (f)

Daurian Redstart (f)

Bluethroat