Hanoi : Phylloscs "influx"

HANOI – Some sightings at 4 wooded/scrubby city patches last week (17^th - 23^th Sept) during noon strolls.

On the phylloscs front, Eastern Crowned Warblers seems less abundant than one week ago. Some Arctic and Yellow-browed Warblers, but few compared to Sulphur-breasted Warblers and "Blyth’s Leaf Warblers", flitting everywhere around. The carambola orchard at Gia Lam was full of warblers (especially Sunday 16^th Sept, a fantastic day) fluttering through all levels, many times at eye-level - excellent opportunities of photo! Concerning the undergrowth-dwellers, Pale-legged Leaf Warblers were spotted in the 4 patches + a glimpse of a Dusky Warbler. More experienced birders would have probably added to this list some rarer Warblers not easy to ID such as Hume’s and Two-barred Greenish.

On the flycatchers front, the best were:

- 1cy Brown-chested Jungle Fly spotted Sunday morning 16th Sept. by the dream team JHJ (Jonathan-Hung-John), seen by me at 15 pm the same day (1 hour and half in the orchard : 2 brief views. Hard job !) and again by Hung the 18th

- 1 Brown-breasted Fly

- 1 (supposed) Klossi Blue-throated Fly

Also the first Taiga Flys of the autumn (1st sighting the 16^th Sept, now present in all the 4 patches).
Yellow-rumped, Asian Brown, Hainan Blue, Hill/Chinese Blue Fly, Black-naped Monarch, Asian Paradise Fly still hanging around (in all the 4 patches), + Dark-sided Fly in only 1 patch.

Other migrants included my first Drongos of the autumn (Ashy, both leucogenis and mouhoti races, and Spangled), some Sparrohawks non ID, Siberian Blue Robins (2 seen + other individuals heard), many Seicercus sp. (cf Bianchi’s), 1 Forest Wagtail, 1 Black-capped Kingfisher, Black-naped Orioles (in the 4 patches), 1 Thick-billed Warbler, 2 Orange-headed Thrushes...

As Hung wrote, we have to share the Gia Lam patch with many hunters. I thought they were after Drongos, Black-winged Cuckooshrikes or Orioles, but in fact they shoot absolutely everything - even flycatchers. I asked a guy who just killed a Hainan Blue Fly : “why do you shoot so tiny birds?”, he answered: “cho vui thôi!” (“for fun!”); and “what will you do with this bird?”, he said : “cho meo an” (“I will give it to my cat”). Pathetic..
Sharing a birding patch with hunters is tragic. Nevertheless let’s stay optimistic, guns are much “better” than mist nets - at least for passerines !

 Pale-legged Leaf Warbler

 Sulphur-breasted Warbler - many sightings recently

 "Blyth’s Leaf Warbler" - also one of the phylloscs the most frequently encountered the last days.
Many of them show a very grey head

 Asian Paradise Flycatcher

 1cy Brown Shrike

 Male Chinese/Hill Blue Flycatcher

The very pale breast and the throat-triangle recalls the race klossi of Blue-throated Flycatcher, but this taxon is confined to southern Indochina!

Last April, I photographed a very similar bird, at Lenin Park (photo below).

 male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher

 male Black-naped Monarch

 1cy Taiga Flycatcher with the beak wide open (still hot here).
Browner than the adults, buffy greater covert/tertial tips.
Photographed at a rubbish dump as you can see. What a nice perch!

 Eating a worm

 An interesting male Hainan Blue Flycatcher with a white throat-triangle

 Brown-breasted Flycatcher, 23^th Sept.

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

female Orange-headed Thrush ssp aurimacula (white median covert tips, dark ear-bars), 23^th Sept. A fabulous looking species! She was in a very dark area, I had to set the ISO to 3.200, with a speed of… 1/20s. I steadied my camera against a tree trunk, took a deep breath... and the result is not so bad.

The same bird in better conditions

I also spotted this male the same day, at another place (yes, still hot here..).

Some more photos at Gia Lam patch (Hanoi)

Hi Friends! With the kindly help of Sebastien, I have several chances visiting the patch at Gia Lam (Hanoi). Great place on some days with many birds but confusion some days with few birds but hunters. However, I got some more new photos for me - particularly the 1cy Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher (spotted the 16th Sept. with Jonathan Eames and John Parr, and again the 18th).

Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher (1cy : lower mandible partly black, tertials buff tipped).
The individual photographed by Sebastien (13th Sept.) exactly at the same place (almost on the same tree!) was an adult (lower mandible entirely yellow)

male Chinese/Hill Blue Fly

female Chinese/Hill Blue Fly

Sulphur-breasted Warbler

1 cy Tiger Shrike

Yellow-browed Warbler

Bianchi's Warbler

Long-billed Plover (Vinh Thuy Bridge, 16th Sept.)

Hung Le

Jungle Flycatcher in the urban jungle

HANOI : Productive noon stroll at my new patch (the carambola orchard at Gia Lam), with some different (and unexpected) migrants showing up. Cool weather means that the dry season has arrived, making birding much more comfortable - especially at noon!

After 15 minutes walking very slowly in the orchard (partly because I came face to face with a big snake resting on branches three days ago), I got a fleeting glimpse of "something brown" dropping to the ground, and flying up to the branches. My view was obscured by vegetation, so I decided to wait it out. After 10 minutes the bird dropped down to the ground again like a small Thrush or a Robin, caught something and perched on a branch at eye-level. I put my bins on it and recognized the familiar shape - chunky build, rather long and stout bill - of a Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher.
I approached it closer ; unfortunately, it was rather backlit and impossible to get better view.

In 2010, we (Florian, Falk, Simon and I) had many sightings of this scarce species in the main hanoian's parks (i.e. Lenin and Botanical Garden), between the 4th September and the 5th October.
The Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher is listed as globally threatened (read here).

An unobtrusive and quiet flycatcher, sitting still for long periods.

Note the hooked tip of the bill

Brownish upper breast, pinkish legs, rather long bill with yellowish lower mandible, whitish throat...

"Wow, I've never seen a fruit like that!"

Whilst chasing the Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher I also managed to photograph this female Chinese/Hill Blue Flycatcher :

... and much more interesting : a Sulphur-breasted Warbler (only a handful of sightings in the city patches) :

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!