Bulletin 306 - China #6 - Thrushes, Laughingthrushes and Starlings

I had an 8 day birding to trip in eastern China with a wonderful guide Lin Zhang based in Shanghai. He is perfectly fluent in English. We visited 5 different locales. His website is here. FYI making contact within China by email is a problem as the government blocks some email accounts coming in including gmail.  So I had to contact him using MS Outlook. His email is zhanglinas@hotmail.com.

Thrushes are a worldwide family of medium sized songbirds with many being beautiful singers. The 9" Naumann's Thrush (Turdus naumanni) is brown with a pale eye strip and reddish spots on underparts.

Naumann's Thrush

The darker 9" Dusky Thrush (Turdus eunomus) has brown spots,These 2 species were formerly considered to be the same species.

Dusky Thrush

The last thrush is the 9.5" Chinese Blackbird (Turdus mandarinus).This bird is all black with a yellow bill. The 'blackbird' of the nursery rhymes was formerly a single species all across Eurasia, but has been split into 4 separate species with this being the most easterly one.

Chinese Blackbird

Laughingthrushes are a different family of songbirds despite a similar sounding name. The 12" Masked Laughingthrush (Garrulax perspicillatus) is a plain gray brown bird with a black mask.

Masked Laughingthrush

The 9" Moustached Laughingthrush (Garrulax cineraceus) is brown with gray wings and a white crescent under his eye

Moustached Laughingthrush

The 10" White-browed Laughingthrush (Garrulax sannio) is mostly rufous with a white face.

White-browed Laughingthrush

The starlings and mynahs are an Old World family of birds. I found 2 new species of starlings on the trip. The 9.5" Red-billed Starling (Spodiospar sericeus) is a gray bird with black wings and a red bill and feet.

Red-billed Starling

The 8.5" White-cheeked Starling (Spodiospar cineraceus) is dark gray brown with a prominent white face patch.

White-cheeked Starling

I have put the different bird families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 39 of the 167 species of thrushes

I have photos of 5 of the 135 species of laughingthrushes

I have photos of 7 of the 118 species of starlings and mynahs

Happy birding and photography,


David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2018 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 305 - China #5 - Plovers, Rails and Oystercatcher

I had an 8 day birding to trip in eastern China with a wonderful guide Lin Zhang based in Shanghai. He is perfectly fluent in English. We visited 5 different locales. His website is here. FYI making contact within China by email is a problem as the government blocks some email accounts coming in including gmail.  So I had to contact him using MS Outlook. His email is zhanglinas@hotmail.com.

I got photos of 3 new plover species..all lifers of course. The 14" Grey-headed Lapwing (Vanellus cinereus) is a tall plover with a gray head, brown back, yellow legs and white underparts.

Grey-headed Lapwing

The 6" Long-billed Plover (Charadrius placidus) in an east Asian bird. It is similar to others of this genus. 

Long-billed Plover

The 6" Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) is similar to our Snowy Plover with only a partial breast band. In fact until a dozen or so years ago, they were considered to be the same species. There was a huge flock way out on the mud flats.

Kentish Plover

The last plover species is the 6" Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius). I had seen this bird in Hong Kong, but obtained a better photo this trip.

Little Ringed Plover

We also saw a Northern Lapwing as long way off in the reeds and no photo was possible. This was also a life bird.

The rail family consists of rails and coots and gallinules. Rails are always shy and retiring, so it was nice ti see this 11" Brown Crake (Amaurornis akool). It looked similar to our Sora with the short yellow bill. It has a brown and gray body. We saw 2 of them an open area.

Brown Crake

The 15" Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra) is an easy ID with the gray body and white bill. It is the only coot in eastern China.

Eurasian Coot

The 13" Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) is another easy ID as similar to our Common Gallinule.

Common Moorhen

 The last bird for this bulletin is the 17" Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus). Again this bird is an easy ID as a large black and white shorebird with the long bright red bill.

Eurasian Oystercatcher

I have put the different bird families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 15 of the 67 species of plovers

I have photos of 14 of the 138 species of rails and coots


I have photos of 3 of the 11 species of oystercatchers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2018 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.