Monday, June 25, 2018

Bulletin 308 - China #8 - Buntings and Sparrows

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.

The buntings in the Old World are in the same family with our New World sparrows. A few of them show up in North America as vagrants. In general, these birds appear to be more brightly colored than our sparrows.

The 6" Rustic Bunting (Emberiza rustica) is in the Sibley guide as the only one to appear regularly in North America. The male has a mostly black head with a crest and white stripe above the eye.


Rustic Bunting - male
The female has a dark brown face rather than black.


Rustic Bunting - female
The 6" Yellow-throated Bunting (Emberiza elegans) is also known as the Elegant Bunting. the male has a yellow and black face with a black crest.


Yellow-throated Bunting - male
AKA Elegant Bunting

The 5.5" Black-faced Bunting (Emberiza spodocephala) has a grey hood and black face in breeding plumage. They have yellow underparts, This one still has some brown on his face and is not completely molted.


Black-faced Bunting - male
The 6" Chestnut-eared Bunting (Emberiza fucata) is all brown with a chestnut patch on the side of the face.


Chestnut-eared Bunting
The 5" Little Bunting (Emberiza pusillahas a chestnut face bordered behind with black.


Little Bunting

The male 6" Pallas's Reed Bunting (Emberiza pallasi) is black and white in breeding plumage. This one still is not fully molted as appears brownish.


Pallas's Reed Bunting - male
The last is the striking 7" Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides). This cooperative bird sat on a bare branch and sang continuously and allowed me to approach closely for a photo.


Meadow Bunting - male


Lastly I photographed 2 sparrows. The Old World Sparrows are in a different family, although they look the same as small brown birds. The 5.5" Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) is brown with a black throat and a black spot behind the ear.


Eurasian Tree Sparrow
The 5" Russet Sparrow (Passer rutilans) is redder but similar and he lacks the black ear spot.


Russet Sparrow - male


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

I have photos of 76 of the 187 species of New World sparrows and buntings.


I have photos of 3 of the 51 species of Old World sparrows.

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


Sunday, June 10, 2018

Bulletin 307 - China #7 - waders and kingfishers

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.

We have 2 cranes in North America. However in the Birds of East Asia guide, they have 7 species of crane and I saw 3 of them.

The tallest of them is the 56" Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus). It is an all white crane with black wingtips, seen in flight. Thus it is similar to our Whooping Crane. And like our crane, this one is critically endangered. There were historically 2 populations breeding in the Siberian arctic. The western population wintered in Iran and India, but the India subgroup has been extirpated and there are estimated only 10 birds left wintering in Iran. So most of the world population of 2-3,000 birds are the eastern population and 95% of them winter in the huge Poyang Lake wetland area in China. This area is threatened with water level changes due to construction of the Three Gorges Dam. The International Crane center has successfully bred this crane in captivity.



Siberian Crane
And in flight.



Siberian Crane

The 46" Common Crane (Grus grus) is next in size. It is light gray with a black neck and head with a white lateral stripe down the neck. This one has a huge range all across Eurasia and is not in any danger with an estimated word wide population of 600,000.

Common Crane

The last is the 40" Hooded Crane (Grus monacha). It is a dark gray crane with a white neck. It is listed as vulnerable as the population is estimated at only 10,000 birds. They breed in southeastern Siberia and winter in China, Korea and Japan.

Hooded Crane
This next bird is an amazing example of bird recovery. The 23" Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) was thought to be extinct in early 1980s due to habitat loss and agricultural chemical use. Then a small remnant flock of 7 birds was found in a poor rural province in China where the people could not afford chemical use. From there with captive breeding it has rebounded to more than 500 birds and now is listed as endangered only. It is a gray ibis with a red face, and with pinkish hue in breeding plumage.

Crested Ibis
The 34" Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) is a white bird with a black bill.

Eurasian Spoonbill
The 28" Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia) is a white heron with a yellow bill in winter. It is the bird behind in the photo.

Intermediate Egret (behind)
The 30" Eurasian Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) is a brown bittern with a streaked neck similar to our American Bittern. We saw about 6 of these birds in the Poyang Lake area. It is also known as the Great Bittern.


Eurasian Bittern
And another in his camouflage pose.

Eurasian Bittern
Kingfishers are much more common in the Old World. We have only 6 in the Americas of a total of 113 species worldwide. The 7" Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) has a blue head and back with reddish underparts. This one caught a minnow and as we watched, a Long-tailed Shrike chased him and caused him to drop his fish.

Common Kingfisher
The 11" White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) has a red head and underparts, with blue back and wings and white throat and breast and a bright red bill.

White-throated Kingfisher
Both these small kingfishers I had seen in Hong Kong previously, but this next one was a treat and we saw it at the last moment before the trip pended. It is the huge 17" Crested Kingfisher (Megaceryle lugubris). It is dark blue and white with a bushy crest.

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

I have photos of 5 of the 15 species of cranes.


I have photos of 8 of the 35 species of ibises and spoonbills.

I have photos of 25 of the 66 species of herons, egrets and bitterns.

I have photos of 9 of the 113 species of kingfishers.

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