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

Bulletin 293 - Hong Kong #1 - birds around water

I had a quick 1 week vacation in Hong Kong last fall and had  1 day birding with guide David Dinkins of Hong Kong walks. We visited several locations in the New Territories.

Because this was my first trip to Asia, almost all the birds seen were lifers and new photos. So I thought I would start with the sandpipers and other water birds. For those bird listers, some of these names will be familiar.

The best sandpiper was the 10" Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago), This is the Eurasian counterpart to our Wilson's Snipe and were considered a single species until split in the last 20 years. If you have looked for the Wilson's Snipe, you know they flush and fly rapidly away and are hard to see clearly. Well we were on a boardwalk in a marsh. This bird flew in and landed on the boardwalk about 20 feet away, allowing a few photos before taking off again.

Common Snipe

The 9" Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus) is plain in winter plumage with dark wings.

Green Sandpiper

The 9" Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) has a white eye stripe and dark spotted wings.

Wood Sandpiper

The 6" Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius) is a typical small plover with 1 ring on his chest.

Little Ringed Plover

The Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) is of course an easy ID with the long pink legs.

Black-winged Stilt

There were several herons and egrets, some of which have an obvious North American counterpart. The 38" Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea) is a large gray and white heron.

Gray Heron

The 24" Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) also has yellow feet like our Snowy Egret.

Little Egret

The 35" Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) is said to be a secretive bird feeding in reed beds and usually only seen when flying between feeding spots as this bird.

Purple Heron

The 19" Chinese Pond Heron (Ardeola bacchus) is brownish with streaked neck in winter. It has no obvious New World counterpart as this genus is confined to the Old World.

Chinese Pond Heron - non-breeding

The 36" Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is a Eurasian species that also appears on east coast of North America and is in the Sibley guide. The non-breeding adult here is black with a white throat.

Great Cormorant - adult non-breeding

The juvenile has white underparts.

Great Cormorant - juvenile

There are over 100 species of kingfishers but only 6 are in the Americas. Many of the Old World kingfishers are beautiful. The 6" Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) is blue above and orange below with red feet.

Common Kingfisher

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2017 David McDonald

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