Guangdong and Guangxi 2-3 Jun 2018 - two Guangs twtiching

Introduction: 
The White-eared Night Heron is one of our dream ticks when studying South-east China bird guide because it is so secretive due to its nocturnal behavior and small population size. I missed two times for seeing the night heron, one in Zhejiang because of my schedule; and one in Guangxi because of bad weather. This year, when I found a paper about the breeding of White-eared Night Heron in Guangxi, I decided to try our luck again.

Few days before the heron trip, we got news about a Silver Oriole found in Guangdong. Silver Oriole is another secretive species as we know little about its breeding and wintering ground, and the population is threatened by habitat change in China. South-east China is the only know breeding ground for this species, we suspect this bird can be stable in this site in Guangdong in this time of the year and probably breeding, as it shares similar habitats with Nanling National Park, where also locates in Guangdong and produced some breeding records before. In 2017 winter, Wing Tung and I went to Nanling for the White-necklaced Partridge and Cabot’s Tragopan, no Silver Oriole was seen that time as it is in winter but we decided to go immediately in future once its nest is found there. And this year, the chance came.

So in this weekend trip, the targets were crystal clear. The only two targets species for us were the endangered Silver Oriole Oriolus mellianus and White-eared Night Heron Gorsachius magnificus. Many thanks to Jon and SoSo’s help, we travelled two Provinces in mainland China in just two days, made a successful trip to twitch the two little-known species in this world!


Itinerary: 
2 June 2018 (Sat) 
Hong Kong -> Huanggang Port皇崗口岸 -> Conghua從化 ->
04:35 arrived Liuxihe Forest流溪河林場 -> birding till noon ->
15:50 arrived Guangzhounan Station廣州南站 -> 21:45 arrived Liuzhou Station柳州站 ->
22:40 arrived hotel

3 June 2018 (Sun) 
hotel -> 07:55 arrived Junwu Forest Park 君武森林公園 -> birding till 11:30 ->
11:45 back to hotel -> 14:00 arrived Liuzhou Station 柳州站 ->
19:26 arrived Guangzhounan Station 廣州南站 -> 20:30 arrived Shenzhenbei 深圳北站 ->
21:45 arrived Futian Port 福田口岸 -> Hong Kong

Birding Spots: 
In Guangdong, we went to Liuxihe Forest first for the Silver Oriole. After 2.5 hours drive, we arrived at the village (23.7347749, 113.8339437) at around 4:35am. Then we hiked for around 40 mins, follow the main trail to a small dam where was the spot of Silver Oriole. We waited on top of the dam (23.7433225, 113.8375637) and most of the bird species were recorded here.

The village in Liuxihe Forest and the trail

The small dam in Liuxihe Forest

A view from the dam site in Liuxihe Forest

with Crested Ibis

very foggy in morning

In Guangxi, we went to Junwu Forest Park (24.466289, 109.381405) only for the White-eared Night Heron. Please contact us to know more about the breeding site of heron. The official website of the park is: http://www.jwslgy99.com/index.php

Main entrance of Junwu Forest Park

Junwu Forest Park

pine trees are the dominant tree species in the park 

Traffic: 

There is 24 hours bus from Wanchai to Huanggang Port as here: http://www.acebus.com.hk/line/line.html. 

We hired a car with driver to travel from Shenzhen to Liuxihe Forest and then to Guangzhounan Station. The total cost is 1000 RMB and the drive was around 2.5 and 2 hours respectively. The driver contact is: 13798313787 Mr. Kwan (Kwan C Fu, 關師傅) 

For the train schedule: 

2 June: D3762 17:46 Guangzhounan - Liuzhou 

3 June: D2950 15:00 Liuzhou - Guangzhounan 

3 June: G821 19:54 Guangzhounan – Shenzhenbei 

Mr. Kwan and his car

Guangzhounan Station 廣州南站

first time to take the high speed rail in China

with Crested Ibis, maybe we will take the high speed rail to see Crested Ibis one day

Then we took taxi from Liuzhou to hotel on 2 June and then used the Didi apps to book a car from hotel back to Liuzhou Station on 3 June. More about the apps: https://itunes.apple.com/hk/app/didi-%E6%BB%B4%E6%BB%B4%E5%87%BA%E8%A1%8C/id554499054?mt=8. 

On 3 June, we just took the Shenzhen Metro back to Futian port from Shenzhenbei Station, which is very convenient.

Accommodation: 
Yijia Linwan Hotel 柳州宜家林灣酒店 (24.468088, 109.374689)
This hotel opened in 2016, and is close to the Junwu Forest Park where you just need a 15-20 mins walk. Room fare is 148 RMB per night. More details can be checked in this link: http://m.ctrip.com/webapp/Hotel/HotelDetail/6522798.html

Fruiting trees and fishpond can be found near the hotel too, a morning walk before going to the park produced some common species like Light-vented Bulbul, Oriental Greenfinch etc. A small supermarket locates just next to the hotel so we could buy our breakfast and drinks there.

A university also sits next to the hotel. Scholars and students there are doing research on the White-eared Night Heron.

Yijia Linwan Hotel

Yijia Linwan Hotel

Expenditure: 

The total cost for this weekend trip is around 1115.5 RMB which include everything. 

The major expenditure as follow: 

Train ticket - 470 RMB in total 

Hotel room - 148 RMB per room 

Car rental - 250 RMB each

the place we had lunch

we ordered many dishes to celebrate after seeing the Silver Oriole

chicken in mainland China is great!

a great lunch!

after 4 hours train and 1 hour taxi, we just had a simple dinner

just costed 8 RMB

breakfast

very yummy coconut juice

another great meal to celebrate the White-eared Night Heron!

dinner before back to HK, the double chicken burger set is much cheaper than in HK

Bird List: 

(H) = heard only; * = refer to Remarks 

Data extracted from eBird and taxonomy follows HBW Alive. 

Guangdong: 

Liuxihe Forest 

Chinese Bamboo Partridge Bambusicola thoracicus (H) 

Crested Goshawk Accipiter trivirgatus * 

Eastern Spotted Dove Spilopelia chinensis (H) 

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo Clamator coromandus 

Western Koel Eudynamys scolopaceus (H) 

Fork-tailed Drongo Cuckoo Surniculus dicruroides (H) * 

Large Hawk Cuckoo Hierococcyx sparverioides 

Hodgson’s Hawk Cuckoo Hierococcyx nisicolor (H) 

House Swift Apus nipalensis 

Red-headed Trogon Harpactes erythrocephalus 

Great Barbet Psilopogon virens (H) 

Chinese Barbet Psilopogon faber (H) 

Black-naped Woodpecker Picus guerini * 

Rufous Woodpecker Micropternus brachyurus * 

Rufous Woodpecker 

Bay Woodpecker Blythipicus pyrrhotis * 

Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus * 

Fairy Pitta Pitta nympha (H) * 

Grey-chinned Minivet Pericrocotus solaris 

Scarlet Minivet Pericrocotus flammeus 

White-bellied Erpornis Erpornis zantholeuca 

Silver Oriole Oriolus mellianus * 

Hair-crested Drongo Dicrurus hottentottus 

Grey Treepie Dendrocitta formosae 

Light-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus sinensis * 

Black Bulbul Hypsipetes leucocephalus 

Black Bulbul

Chestnut Bulbul Hemixos castanonotus 

Mountain Bulbul Ixos mcclellandii (H) 

Common Tailorbird Orthotomus sutorius 

Indochinese Yuhina Yuhina torqueola 

Rufous-capped Babbler Cyanoderma ruficeps (H) 

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler Pomatorhinus ruficollis (H) 

Grey-cheeked Fulvetta Alcippe morrisonia hueti * 

Chinese Hwamei Garrulax canorus (H) 

Hainan Blue Flycatcher Cyornis hainanus (H) 

Slaty-backed Forktail Enicurus schistaceus * 

Slaty-backed Forktail

Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush Monticola rufiventris * 

Chinese Blackbird Turdus mandarinus 

Greyish-crowned Leafbird Chloropsis lazulina * 

Species only recorded outside the main spot 

Chinese Pond Heron Ardeola bacchus 

Great Egret Ardea alba 

Little Egret Egretta garzetta 

Black-eared Kite Milvus migrans 

Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus * 

Crested Myna Acridotheres cristatellus 

Guangxi: 

Junwu Forest Park 

Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis 

Striated Heron Butorides striata 

Striated Heron

White-eared Night Heron Gorsachius magnificus * 

Black Baza Aviceda leuphotes * 

Crested Serpent Eagle Spilornis cheela (H) 

Chinese Sparrowhawk Accipiter soloensis * 

Chinese Sparrowhawk

White-breasted Waterhen Amaurornis phoenicurus (H) 

Greater Coucal Centropus sinensis (H) 

Asian Koel Eudynamys scolopaceus (H) 

Asian Barred Owlet Glaucidium cuculoides (H) 

Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis 

Eurasian Hobby Falco subbuteo * 

Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius 

Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 

Japanese Tit Parus minor 

Black-throated Bush-tit Aegithalos concinnus 

Light-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus sinensis hainanus * 

Chestnut Bulbul Hemixos castanonotus (H) 

Common Tailorbird Orthotomus sutorius 

Chinese Prinia Prinia sonitans * 

Plain Prinia Prinia inornata 

Japanese White-eye Zosterops japonicus 

Rufous-capped Babbler Cyanoderma ruficeps (H) 

Chinese Hwamei Garrulax canorus (H) 

Oriental Magpie Robin Copsychus saularis 

Hainan Blue Flycatcher Cyornis hainanus 

Chinese Blackbird Turdus mandarinus 

Fork-tailed Sunbird Aethopyga latouchii (H) 

White Wagtail Motacilla alba 

Oriental Greenfinch Chloris sinica 

Scaly-breasted Munia Lonchura punctulata 

Species only recorded outside the main spot 

Eastern Spotted Dove Spilopelia chinensis 

Bay Woodpecker Blythipicus pyrrhotis (H) 

Dollarbird Eurystomus orientalis 

Red-whiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus 

Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus 

Total number of species: 68 (15 heard only)

This trip ebird checklists as follow: 

Liuxihe Forest: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S46288844 

Junwu Forest Park: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S46256953

Remarks: 

Silver Oriole Oriolus mellianus 

- Globally endangered species (BirdLife International, 2018) which is threatened by habitat loss and illegal trapping. At least one male and one female were seen at the dam site. Male is more silvery white with fewer streaks. Breeding ground is poorly known but restricted in South and South-east China, where Liuxihe is a potential breeding site for this species. Male foraged alone, and called, very similar to the call of Maroon Oriole. Since we could not find the tape of Silver Oriole, we tried to use playback by the call of Maroon Oriole but no response. This bird is migratory, probably winter in Thailand and Cambodia, a potential species occurs in Hong Kong during migration season

my first photo of Silver Oriole

can you see the silver in the green

adult male Silver Oriole

adult male Silver Oriole

adult male Silver Oriole

White-eared Night Heron Gorsachius magnificus

- Globally endangered species (BirdLife International, 2018) which is mainly threatened by habitat loss and illegal hunting. Only one active nest consisted of one pair of adults and one chick was seen in the park this time (one more chick was seen in the same nest after this trip by other birders). In Junwu Forest Park, the majority trees are Masson’s Pine, a favorite nesting tree for this species. The White-eared Night Heron (WENH) is famous for its nocturnal behavior, which is also the reason why this species is poorly known. Large eyes help hunting at night, mainly for fish. As expected we did not hear any call in daytime. We visited some old nests as suggested in a paper (Jiang et al. 2017), but no bird was observed and one nest was occupied by Chinese Sparrowhawk. Human disturbance can be a main reason the adult herons abandoned the old nest. Also, unluckiness worsened the case, as an old nest was destroyed during thunderstorm. The largest known breeding population of WENH locates in Zhejiang; while Guangxi is the second largest known breeding site. This species was once considered as endemic in China but breeding pairs have been found in Vietnam recently. Birds may be migratory, and possible to be recorded in Hong Kong especially if the birds in Guangdong disperse. Furthermore, structure, feeding behavior and the choice of feeding habitat of WENH were described to be different when comparing to Japanese and Malayan Night Heron, the other two members of the genus Gorsachius. A phylogenetic study also proved the WENH is more closely related to typical egret genus Egretta (Zhou et al. 2016) and so the WENH may be grouped into another genus Oroanassa in short coming future when more researches are done. The GPS coordinates of the old nest (Jiang et al. 2017) are marked in map below:

data of old nests of WENH; print-screened from the paper (Jiang et al. 2017)

old nests of WENH; reproduced from the paper (Jiang et al. 2017)

White-eared Night Heron

two adults and one juvenile White-eared Night Heron in nest built on Masson’s Pine

White-eared Night Heron

White-eared Night Heron

White-eared Night Heron juvenile

Crested Goshawk Accipiter trivirgatus 

- One was harassed by Hair-crested Drongo in flight at the dam site 

Chinese Sparrowhawk Accipiter soloensis 

- Two adult males were seen in the park, one was occupying an old WENH nest

nest of Chinese Sparrowhawk

Black Baza Aviceda leuphotes 

- One was seen in flight in the park

Black Baza

Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus 

- One was found by Jon during the train to Guangzhounan, hovering to hunt 

Fork-tailed Drongo Cuckoo Surniculus dicruroides 

- Heard only in Liuxihe. HBW Alive suggested the Drongo Cuckoo breeding in SE China is this species but not Square-tailed Drongo Cuckoo S. lugubris on eBird

Black-naped Woodpecker Picus guerini 
- As Grey-headed Woodpecker P. canus on eBird, but split on HBW Alive with eight subspecies with sobrinus distributed in South-east China and Vietnam, due to morphological and vocal differences

Black-naped Woodpecker

Rufous Woodpecker Micropternus brachyurus 
- Two were seen in heavy fog at the dam site

Rufous Woodpecker in fog

Bay Woodpecker Blythipicus pyrrhotis 
- At least three were seen at the dam site, very responsive to the playback

Bay Woodpecker

Fairy Pitta Pitta nympha 
- Globally vulnerable species (BirdLife International, 2018), one was heard at the dam site, probably breeding in Liuxihe Forest

Eurasian Hobby Falco subbuteo 
- One adult was seen in flight in the park

Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus 
- One was seen in flight at the dam site

Light-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus sinensis 
- In Guangdong, the subspecies is sinensis; while in Guangxi, the subspecies is hainanus. Subspecies hainanus lacks white nape and the ear covert spot is smaller than the other subspecies so some authors treat this as a distinct species even there is still no genetic support

Light-vented Bulbul hainanus

Chinese Prinia Prinia sonitans 
- As Yellow-bellied Prinia P. flaviventris on eBird, but the subspecies sonitans split on HBW Alive as a distinct species due to morphological differences

Grey-cheeked Fulvetta Alcippe morrisonia hueti 
- As Huet’s Fulvetta A. hueti on eBird, this subspecies is not yet split on HBW Alive

Slaty-backed Forktail Enicurus schistaceus 
- A family with two adults and one chick were seen very well at the dam site

juvenile Slaty-backed Forktail

juvenile Slaty-backed Forktail

adult Slaty-backed Forktail

adult Slaty-backed Forktail

Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush Monticola rufiventris 
- One female was seen at the dam site

Greyish-crowned Leafbird Chloropsis lazulina melliana 
- As Orange-bellied Leafbird C. hardwickii on eBird, but split on HBW Alive with two subspecies with melliana distributed in South China, Laos and Vietnam, due to morphological and genetic differences


Reference: 
Jiang, A., Tan, L., & Feng, H. (2017). Breeding Observations of White-Eared Night-Herons (Gorsachius magnificus) in Artificial Forests of Southern China. Waterbirds, 40(2), 173-179. Available here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264825906_Observations_on_breeding_behavior_of_the_White-eared_Night_Heron_Gorsachius_magnificus_in_northern_Guangdong_China

LU Zhou, YU Lijiang, SHU Xiaolian, JIANG Aiwu, ZHOU Fang. (2016) Distribution and Protection Status of Gorsachius magnificus in Guangxi[J]. Sichuan Journal of Zoology, 35(2): 302-306 
Available here:
http://html.rhhz.net/scdwzz/html/48210.htm

Zhou X., Yao C., Lin Q., Fang W. & Chen X. (2016) Complete mitochondrial genomes render the night heron genus Gorsachius non-monophyletic. J. Orn. 157:505-513 

Call of White-eared Night Heron: 
Duncan Wilson, XC236024. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/236024. 

Call of Maroon Oriole: 
Marc Anderson, XC177060. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/177060.