Winterers/migrants downtown Hanoi

Not much birding this week (26th Nov ->2nd Dec), the weather was awful. The terrible Hanoi winter has begun : cold, wet and GREY!

At the Botanical Gardens, I flushed an Eurasian Woodcock around the toilet area ! This guy was trying to hide itself behind a tiny bush. My second sighting of a Woodcock in this park. I also picked up a male Mugimaki Flycatcher.

Most of the White-tailed Robins or Fujian Niltavas spotted least week have gone - or have been captured by... blowpipe hunters (see the last photo of this post).

The park held small flocks of Turdus thrushes. Some male Japanese Thrushes with different patterns, whilst the others, all females or first-year birds, presented a significant identification problem and were not all identified conclusively.  I did not found the solution in the guide books or on the Internet...

An adult male Japanese Thrush showing the "usual" pattern (i.e. the most encountered) with grey-blue mantle contrasting with black head

A black-backed male Japanese, with almost no contrast between head and mantle, and big black spots below (my second sighting of this pattern at Hanoi in 2 years, the other one here).

I am almost certain that this bird is coming from Northeast Asia. Japanese Thrush has different populations with plumage variations (curiously not covered in the guide books), birds breeding in China are a bit different from those breeding to the NE in Japan. 

I suspect it's a 1st cy Japanese (heavily spotted below/flanks), but the strong warm orange down the flanks make me confused.

Well-demarcated streaky rather than spotted breast, faint spotted below... I suspect it's a 1st cy Grey-backed.

 

female White-tailed Robin

What is that ? From this angle, ID is a bit tricky

Hm hm.. a small blue patch in the neck : female Fujian Niltava

Blue Whistling Thrush. Nice bird, but crappy background.

male Mugimaki Flycacher. Regular passage migrant here.

I spent one hour skulking around the toilet area, chasing this Rufous-tailed Robin. And if people saw me as a pervert, I don't care ! That is the price to pay for capturing close-ups of birds which are much more difficult to photograph in the forest.

It is really not too difficult to get nice shots of winterers/migrants in the urban parks because they can often allow much closer approach than the ones we encounter elsewhere.

Careful, it is slippery!

Olive-backed Pipit. Very common winterer.

We do not stop the progress ! Jivaro style hunting in the city !

They can hit a passerine at 20m - I took all my photos at less than 10m...

They do not use darts but soft balls. The objective is not to kill the bird but to stun it, and then put it in a cage.

Botanical Gardens - Hanoi

Some lunchtime visits at the Botanical Gardens this week ( 19th -> 24th Nov.), my first ones of the autumn’s, produced a nice selection of migrants/winter visitors – maybe I should go there more regularly!

The highlights were 4 Fujian Niltavas (2 females, 2 males), 3 White-tailed Robins (2 males, 1 female), 1 Rufous-tailed Robin, 1 male Himalayan Bluetail, 1 Blue Whistling Thrush, 10+ Japanese Thrushes (some of them very tame, certainly not arrived one day before...), 2 skittish Chinese Blackbirds, 1 Large-billed Crow high in the canopy (patch tick # 111 / this number = Lenin Park + Bot. Garden – List here – If I forgot something, please tell me!).

Other notables included some Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers (the only species of Flys), a flock of 5-6 Silver-eared Mesias, Scarlet-backed Flowerpeckers (probably resident, seen or heard all the year), my first Olive-backed Pipits of the autumn, 1 Grey Wagtail, Seicercus Warblers sp., Yellow-browed Warblers…

Many of these guys were spotted around the toilets, which remains one of the best birding spot of the city centre!

I was very happy to see again many Thrushes in the park. It reminds me this fantastic winter 2010/2011 with sometimes 6-7 species of Thrushes the same day! The winter 2011-2012 was completely disappointed with very few Thrushes seen. I hope this one will be better.

For some of the images below, suggestions/remarks of the Thrushes's experts would be very welcome!

 Female Fujian Niltava

Male Fujian Niltava

It uses the “sit and wait” tactic, dropping down onto preys on the ground from its perch.

Fujian Niltava is a regular sight at Hanoi in winter, but 4 individuals in the same place at the same time it is pretty amazing!

Rufous-tailed Robin.

An inconspiscuous species with few records in the Hanoi area (mostly in November), but likely to be under-recorded.

Male White-tailed Robin.

This species is assumed to be a montane resident, although there is evidence of some movements (not only altitudinal ones) during the non-breeding season.

Female White-tailed Robin

She appeared few seconds in a bushy corner as I was waiting for Thrushes. Shutter speed 1/10s. Even with the help of a tripod, no miracle...

Male Himalayan Bluetail 

Large-billed Crow.
It shows a perfect plumage - especially no wear on the tip of the tail - so I assume it is a genuine bird and not an escapee or released individual.

2 males Japanese Thrush : one with a strong contrast between head and mantle/wings ; the other one (below) with almost no contrast. Why such a difference between 2 full adults individuals ? Different morphs/subspecies ?

"Hmm... let's see if there is not one or two plump worms here"

 I think it is a 1st winter Japanese Thrush

Blue Whistling Thrush of the black-billed migratory race caeruleus (a possible future split). A rather common passage migrant in the Hanoi area.

A bit of video around the toilets (Flycatcher + BIG flies) :

Sébastien Delonglée

Red River Island - Hanoi 25/12/2011

Short noon stroll at the woodland of the Red River Island produced few birds - most notably :

- 1 Barn Owl
- 1 Thick-billed Warbler
- 1 Bradypterus Bush Warbler (with spotted throat. B. thoracicus? )
- 1 Rufous-tailed Robin

Sebastien

Thrushes in Botanical Gardens

Lots of Thrushes in the Botanical Gardens this morning, at least 10 in the two usual spots.
A few easy Japanese Thrushes but also quite a few that were difficult to me, I think most were 1st winter Japanese. One looked like a Black-throated (very dense and dark streaked throat, less dense streaks on belly and flanks, grey sides and upperside of head and neck).
Further a Rufous-tailed Robin (lifer!), a Red-flanked Bluetail and an Ashy Drongo.
Florian

Rufous-tailed Robins - Botanical Garden

Hi all,

In the Botanical Garden yesterday, seen 2 Olive-backed Pipits, 2 Thrushes (1 Japanese male, the other one not clearly ID, see next post), some Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers, 1 Dusky Warbler, 2 Rufous-tailed Robins together (video below)

Sebastien

Lenin Park, 3rd November, Rufous-tailed Robin

Hi all,

a quick morning stroll proved to be less productive than anticipated.
Best birds were:

1 Rufous-tailed Robin
1 Asian Stubtail
1 Blue-and-White Flycatcher (still the female, looks somewhat bristly - maybe escaped after being caught?)

Sebastien saw a Thick-billed Warbler as well.

Cheers,
Falk

Rufous-tailed Robin enter the Lenin Park list

Hi all,

Quick morning stroll around Lenin Park to see a possible recent arrival of new migrants.

The best thing was a Rufous-tailed Robin perched on the same dead branches - along the wall - where we have seen so many goodies - I mean behind the toilets... An another Lenin Park tick (park list stands at..., someone have an idea ?).
Sorry for this crap pic. This bird was extremely wary. When I saw it, I immediately took some pics and a video. A good idea because when I tried to approach a little bit (I was at about 15 metres) it promptly flew off, not to be seen again !

A (the?) Blue-and-White Fly female was also hanging around.