It is nearly the end of June, a hot, humid and rainy day. A butterfly training was held today, reminding our butterflying days in the past, but sadly nothing beautiful or interesting except one
Common Tiger (I am a true birder, stupid butterflier but Wing Tung still taught me some butterfly ID skills).
Common Tiger
We went out after the rain stopped, a perfect timing to look for swift and swallow (honestly, I didn’t focus on any butterflies), and it will be exciting to see a swiftlet among the flock in this time of the year. No big flock of swift and swallow was seen, only single boring Barn Swallow until one brownish swiftlet species flew above my head in boardwalk and I knew that would be something interesting. I walked further and refound the bird, took some distant shots. And finally, I went for
Germain’s Swiflet for its ID, a species probably overlooked in Hong Kong or East China.
The bird was very similar to the birds I saw in Zhejiang in June 2015, where I had excellent views and much better photos to confirm the ID, and there was an invasion of this species that year to East Asia as well. The swiftlet today showed distinct pale rump that, when there was strong sunlight shining on the bird could cause an illusion of House Swift, but the ‘rump’ on swiftlet was much narrower and darker than House Swift, and they both showed different flying jizz. For the bird today, it also showed small black cap, and some black patterns on its undertail coverts, features which I have never seen in Himalayan Swiftlet but in Germain’s and the Zhejiang birds. There was no size comparison today so could not tell whether it was small or large but the wings looks slightly shorter and boarder than Himalayan Swiftlet I saw in HK in the past (in theory Germain’s Swiftlet is smaller than House Swift or Himalayan Swiftlet). If a better photos could be taken, the wing formula may also tell the difference. Furthermore, we have never seen any Himalayan Swiftlet (or even other swiftlet) in summer in HK. The timing of today’s bird occurance is exactly the same as my Zhejiang experience.
black cap can be shown in this photo
looked like a 'white rump' under strong sunlight
some black pattern in the undertail coverts
unlike House Swift, the rump is not white in color
looks like the Zhejiang birds
Identifying swift and swiftlet is always a challenge, especially for swiftlets, they are small, similar in size, appearance and difficult to get good views because they always fly high in both speed and height. Besides Germain’s Swiftlet, other SE Asian swiftlets species can also come to HK one day, that’s why we need to study more before encounter one next time.
My photos of Germain’s Swiftlet taken in Zhejiang:
https://www.hbw.com/ibc/species/55287/photos?uid=lchunfai
Today’s checklist:
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S46824685
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