Hanoi : More migrants

“Firsts of the autumn” spotted last week at Hanoi (mostly at a star fruit orchard at Gia Lam, in the inner city - a new patch!) :

- 1 male Hainan Blue Fly
- 2 Siberian Blue Robin (male and female together) lurking in the undergrowth
- Many Arctic and some Yellow-browed Warblers
- one 1cy Dark-sided Fly
- 1 Burmese Shrike.

Yellow-rumped Flys are actually the most common passerine migrants in all of my city patches (70-80% are female-type). One day, I counted 4 individuals in this small orchard. During a recent day trip to the Tam Dao foothills, I spotted much less passerine migrants than I saw in 15 minutes in this garden! I like these city patches because they make me feel that migration is underway...

On the phylloscs front, Eastern Crowned and Arctic Warblers are actually the most frequently encountered.

Also a flock of ca 30 Grey-headed Lapwings above Vinh Thuy Bridge searching a place for landing and a lone Black-tailed Godwit on the mudflats in the vicinity of the bridge. I always keep an eye on this area (Black Stork and Scaly-sided Merganser last autumn there, if you remember...).

Eastern Crowned Warblers (Gia Lam, Hanoi, 10th Sept.),
actually a very common sight in all the city patches. Easily identified by the yellow washed undertail coverts, the strongly marked yellow supercilium and crown stripe, with smokey grey-green on the rest of the head contrasting with brighter green mantle.

A typical juvenile Dark-sided Flycatcher with white spots on the back, dark spots on the breast and a streaked head (Gia Lam, Hanoi, 6th Sept.).

I noticed that Dark-sided Fly behave quite differently from Asian Brown Fly by usually perching low on exposed branches, making quick raids from there to catch insects. Asian Brown Fly moving at mid-storey level, and is not faithful to a particular perch like Dark-sided. The latter looks long-winged, the bill looks entirely black (pale colouration restricted to the base of the lower mandible). One feature often mentioned in the literature is the dark centres to the undertail coverts, but I found it hard to see in the field (this young bird does not show this feature).

My best ever photo of an Asian Brown Flycatcher (sharp, nice attitude, rather uniform background).

Just grabbed its lunch. Looks a bit big for it...
(Gia Lam, Hanoi, 8th Sept.)
The carambola trees are in bloom now. Perfect background!

My first Arctic Warbler of the autumn (Gia Lam, Hanoi, 9th Sept.). How many thousands of kilometers have covered this little fellow ?

Arctic Warbler has now been split into 3 species based on genetics and songs. An excellent news for all the “phylloscs experts” (ironical) like me! More details here.

Yellow-browed Warbler (Gia Lam, Hanoi, 6th Sept.)

An excited female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher (Gia Lam, Hanoi, 9th Sept.), flicking its wings and tail, easily detected by its rattling calls “tr..tr..tr”.

Much less conspicuous : a male Hainan Blue Flycatcher (Gia Lam, Hanoi, 6th Sept.).

Sébastien

Hanoi migration

A fairly standard beginning of September at Hanoi with not many migrants but a rather good diversity. Some trips in the city and around produced the following :


- Wooded/scrubby areas : 3-4 Asian-Paradise Flys race incei, 1 Hill Blue/Chinese Fly, 5-6 Yellow-rumped Flys (an early migrant, 1st sighting in mid-August), 2 Asian Brown Flys, 3 Black-naped Monarchs, 2 Seicercus Warblers (probably Bianchi’s) together low down in the undergrowth, some Eastern Crowned Warblers (plus fleeting glimpses of some other unidentified phylloscs).
“Highlight” : 2-3 Jerdon’s Bazas in/around the wooded area of the Red River Island.

- Cultivation (Red River Island): some Brown Shrikes and Siberian Stonechats (both 1st sight: 27th August), good numbers of Barn Swallows hunting above the fields.
“Highlight” : a lone Pied Bushchat male. This species is known much further south (central, southern Vietnam) and, to my knowledge, has never been recorded in the Hanoi area. This dude is not meant to be here, that’s certain. So, a lucky escapee? Considering the fact that some northern populations are vagrant, I’d give to it the benefit of the doubt.

- Mudflats (along the Red River) : the classical assemblage of common Waders (Little Ring Plovers, Green/Common Sandpipers, Common Greenshanks..) + Yellow Wagtails.
“Highlight” : Oriental Pratincoles (flock of 10 ind.).

 Pied Bushchat (Red River Island, 29th August)

Well, hm.. hmm..., probably not a genuine bird... Significant wear on the tip of the tail...

 Seicercus Warbler (Botanical Garden, around the toilets as usual, 4th September).
Wing-bar well marked : Bianchi's?

female-type Black-naped Monarch (Red River Is., 4th September).  

Note the long whiskers around the beak.

Eastern Crowned Warbler (3th September)

Asian Openbills - Van Long

Ca 200 Asian Openbills spotted the 1st September at Van Long. Nice place, nice sight!

Welcome back, guys, we've missed you!

Excellent start to the autumn's migration at Hanoi (in 3 different small patches) with 4-5 Yellow-rumped Flys (including 1 male), 1 Phyllos non ID, 2 Asian Paradise Flys, 4 Forest Wagtails (together), 1 Tiger Shrike juv, 1 Asian Brown Fly, 1 Hainan Blue Fly.

After 3 months admiring Red-wiskered Bulbuls and Sparrows, we are all happy!

 Forest Wagtail (Gia Lam, 23th August)

Asian Brown Flycatcher (Gia Lam, 23th August)

Tiger Shrike juv/1st winter (Lenin Park, 23th August)

Asian Paradise Flycatcher (Gia Lam, 26th August). The blackish throat contrasting with the grey breast and belly indicates that this is the migrant race, incei.

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher female (Gia Lam, 22th August), feeding on... fruits

Sapa + Fansipan trail, 30-6 and 1-7-2012

Hi all,

First things first - my quest to find more than 500 species of birds in Vietnam has been successful! As I've never been to Sapa before it was very much anticipated by me but certainly not as easy as I had thought.
First of all, I only had 1 1/2 days. Second, the weather was terrible at times - windy, rainy and foggy, especially along O Quy Ho road where nothing was seen but a whatever finchbill and a Hill Prinia.
A few tourists were around but that was less of a problem.
A pre-arranged guide took me from the Cat Cat View Hotel to Hoang Lien National Park where we took the trail to Fansipan. I didn't stop for Little Forktail at the waterfalls as tourists were everywhere and time was restricted.
Once we started walking up the trail that starts at the "Eco-tourism zone" (this word gives me the shiver) hopes were high! The first birds to be seen, and heard were Whiskered Yuhinas, soon followed by an all too quick glimpse of what might have been a juvenile Green Cochoa - views were too brief to claim it though.
Many Grey-bellied Tesias were heard, and one was seen exceptionally well.
My list kept growing with species added including, Bar-throated Minla, Black-faced Warbler, Hume's Treecreeper, White-tailed Nuthatch, Yellow-cheeked Tit, Red-tailed Minla, Yellow-browed Tit, Golden Parrotbill, Rufous-winged, Streak-throated and White-browed Fulvetta as well as White-collared and Stripe-throated Yuhina.
The night was spent at the lower campsite. It had started pouring down, and would only stop for short periods of time the next day. Most of the higher elevation birds were missed which is a shame but given the short amount of time and terrible weather I think I did OK.
Highlights of the second day included nice views of Hill partridge, Chestnut-headed Tesia, Silver-eared Laughingthrush (brief views but great anyway - thanks Simon!), Chestnut-bellied Rock-thrush and Yellow-billed Blue Magpie!
On the way down a few species I'd seen before were added to the trip list including, Chestnut-vented Nuthatch, White-tailed Robin and Large Niltava.

                                         Ferruginous Flycatcher                                               

                                         White-browed Fulvetta

                                         A spot that looks like a Chestnut-bellied Rock-thrush

The trip was very successful - despite the terrible weather, and the fact that I missed quite a few of the more interesting high elevation species. I had 23 new species though, and that meant I could leave Vietnam with a final count of 511!

I will certainly be back at some stage to make it 600!

Cheers,
Falk

Nam Cat Tien - June 23-25

I finally made it to Nam Cat Tien, and wish I had gotten there earlier.  In 3 days of birding I notched up 54 species (identified - I saw a lot more) which is not to bad, I think, for a beginner (with about a third new species for me).  Someone good could easily double that.

I wish I new what my highlights were.  Sometimes I thought I was in a Lebanese restaurant, there were so many Pitta about.  I must have seen close to 25 Blue-winged, and a couple of Bar-bellied.  I heard from a film crew there that there were two known nests for Blue-tailed, but no such joy for me.  There were several Black-and-Red Broadbills, and a highlight (for me) on my last day were an Orange-breasted Trogon and a Collared Falconet.  I saw Common Flameback and Lesser Yellownapes (in a territory dispute) and Rufous Woodpeckers.  As I waited for the ferry out, I had awesome views of a Green-eared Barbet feeding (very close to me).

Goodbye all!  I really enjoyed Vietnam!!! and hope to be back there working again one day.

Wayne