Bulletin 346 - China 2019 #4 - Babblers, warbler, flycatcher

I had a brief trip to SW China and managed a few days birding. I was particularly interested in 2 critically endangered primates there, as well as a new bird species discovered about a decade ago.

Babbler is a name of small songbirds in at least 6 different bird families. The Timaliidae family has 55 species and they are called scimitar babblers or just babblers and include the Nonggang Babbler that we say in Bulletin 344. I saw 3 others in this family on the trip. 

The 8" Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler (Pomatorhinus ruficollis) is a beautiful bird. There are several subspecies including one without a streaked breast. This is the styani subspecies, the most colorful with the rufous breast with white stripes.

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler

The 5" Grey-throated Babbler (Stachyris nigriceps) is a brown bodied bird with gray head and some white streaks.

Grey-throated Babbler

The last of this family is the 5" Pin-striped Tit-Babbler (Macronus gularis). It is a yellow breasted bird with brown back and wings, rufous cap, and thin breast streaks.

Pin-striped Tit-Babbler

The next family is Pellorneidae and contains fulvettas and ground babblers. Until about 2008 they were included in the above family.

The 5.5" Buff-breasted Babbler (Pellorneum tickelli) is small wren like brown bird with pink legs and a red eye.

Buff-breasted Babbler

The 5" Huet's Fulvetta (Alcippe hueti) I had photographed on my previous China trip. It is a brown bird with a gray hood and white eye ring.

Huet's Fulvetta

The 4.5" Yellow-bellied Warbler (Abroscopus superciliaris) is in the small (32 species) cettia bush warbler family. It is the second of this family I have photographed. It is olive above, yellow below with a gray head and bright white eye stripe.

Yellow-bellied Warbler

The last bird is an old world flycatcher. It is the beautiful 11" White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus). This is a male with the blue black back and breast and rusty belly. The long tail is black and white. This bird has also been introduced into Hawaii.

White-rumped Shama - male

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

I have photos of 5 of the 55 species of  scimitar babblers

I have photos of 2 of the 70 species of  fulvettas and ground babblers

I have photos of 2 of the 32 species of cettia bush warblers

I have photos of 36 of the 328 species of  Old World flycatchers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2019 David McDonald

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Bulletin 182 - Kauai #2 - endemics and others

The endemic forest birds of Kauai are among the most endangered of any on the Hawaiian Islands. 3 or 4 species have gone extinct since 1990. Most of the rest are expected to disappear by 2020, so if one wants to see them, one needs to plan in the next few years.

Lisa, Seth and I hired local guide Jim Denny to take us to find the endemic forest birds.

The Iiwi is almost never seen in Kauai any more. The larger of the 2 native thrushes (Kamao) of Kauai went extinct after the hurricanes in the 90s hit Kauai. The smaller one (Puaiohi) may still be present in small numbers in the wild, but it is being raised in captivity. We didn't see any of these on the trip.

The Kauai Amakihi (Hemignathus kauaiensis) is the largest of the 3 species of Amakihi in Hawaii. It is yellow-green with curved bill and black mask. We just saw a couple of them.

Kauai Amakihi

The smallest (4") of all the Hawaiian honeycreepers is the Anianiau (Hemignathus parvus). I have a problem with pronouncing the names of the birds as written. It is good to go with a guide who knows how to pronounce them. This is pronounced ani-ani-ow. The male is bright yellow and the female is duller. We saw 2 or 3 of them, but managed only a couple of photos.

Anianiau

Another very rare honeycreeper the Akekee put in a brief appearance while I was photographing the Anianiau above. The guide saw it, but none of the rest of us saw the bird as we were focused on the Anianiau.

The most common of the endemics was the Kauai Elepaio (Chasiempis sclateri). We saw a number of these and had good photo opportunities as they were not concerned with our presence. The aduts are mostly gray with a brown wash on the throat, and are the plainest of the 3 species. It belongs to the Monarch Flycatcher family. The cocked up tail is the most distinguishing feature.


Kauai Elepaio - adult

The juvenile however, is a very bright red brown.

Kauai Elepaio - juvenile

And another of a bird right over my head.

Kauai Elepaio - juvenile

After struggling for more than 15 years to see a Nene (Branta sandvicensis) on Hawaii or Maui, they are all over the place on Kauai. The reason for this is there are no mongoose on the island to raid the nests. As on the other islands, they are almost all banded.

Nene

There are a number of introduced birds on Kauai as on the other islands. The new ones we saw include the Red-crested Cardinal (Paroaria coronata). The adults have a red head and crest, dark gray back and white underparts. They are native to South America.

Red-crested Cardinal - adult

The juveniles have an orange-brown head and crest.

Red-crested Cardinal - juvenile

The other was the White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus). This large (10") songbird is native to Malaysia and was introduced to Kauai in 1931. The male is black above, orange below and has a long tail.

White-rumped Shama - male

The female is gray above rather than black.



White-rumped Shama - female

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald

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