Bulletin 312 - China #12 - Misc small songbirds

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 5.5" Japanese Tit (Parus minor) looks like a chickadee for sure, but he has a black stripe down the midline underneath.

Japanese Tit

The 4"  male Yellow-bellied Tit (Periparus venustulus) is endemic to SE China. It resembles a chickadee with a complete yellow breast and belly. 

Yellow-bellied Tit - male

The female is greenish and has a white throat.

Yellow-bellied Tit - female

The next 2 birds are in the bushtit family. The 4.5 " male Black-throated Tit (Aegithalos concinnus). He resembles our chickadees more then the drab bushtit.

Black-throated Tit - male

The 6" Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) looks like a long tailed chickadee.

Long-tailed Tit

The 4" Chinese Penduline Tit (Remiz consobrinus) is in a tiny family called penduline tits and there is only 1 species in the Americas, the Verdin. This photo is a drab female. The male is more brightly marked but I never saw him.

Chinese Penduline Tit - female

There are many Old World birds called babblers and they are in 7 different families! This is the 4.5" Rufous-capped Babbler (Stachyris ruficeps). It is the first bird I have photographed in the timaliidae family. All of the are in Asia. It is an olive green bird with a bright rufous cap.

Rufous-capped Babbler

The tiny 4" White-rumped Munia (Lonchura striata) is a brown and white bird popular as a pet. Other species of the lonchura genus are found as escapes in USA and Hawaii.

White-rumped Munia

The 5" Huet's Fulvetta (Alcippe hueti) is a brown bodied bird with gray head. He also has a bright white eye ring. It is the first member of this family I have seen or photographed.

Huet's Fulvetta

The 4.5" Brown-flanked Bush Warbler (Horornis fortipes) is a member of the small (32 species) cettia bush warbler family. They are all in east Asia and Pacific Islands to Fiji. The seem to be all drab brown and closely resemble our wrens. This is the only member of this family I have seen.

Brown-flanked Bush Warbler

And the final tiny bird is the 4" Zitting Cisiticola (Cisitcola juncidis), This is a small brown streaked bird that would be impossible to ID without the guide.

Zitting Cisticola

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

I have photos of 11 of the 64 species of chickadees and tits.

I have photos of 3 of the 13 species of bushtits.

I have photos of 2 of the 10 species of penduline tits

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2018 David McDonald

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