Chai Wan 26 Sep 2020 - squirrel day

 Arctic Warbler is the best in the list in Chai Wan today, if not mentioning the well fed squirrel....

Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S74061792

Eastern Spotted Dove

Arctic Warbler

Squirrel by phone no crop...

oyster time

Shing Mun and San Tin 20 Sep 2020 - Boring and boring

What a boring day without any luck. Went to Shing Mun for Black-throated Tit but none, what a species! Only a few Whiskered Tern and White-winged Tern in San Tin, an unID Acrocephalus and nothing else.

Shing Mun: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73807211

San Tin: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73811800

Common tailorbird - only photo in Shing Mun

Eurasian Collared Dove

Long-toed Stint

Whiskered Tern

White-winged Tern - note the molting dark underwing coverts

Whiskered Tern

Whiskered Tern

Red-necked Stint

Common Sandpiper - more common birds

Common Myna - likely a juvenile

Common Myna 

Ho Man Tin, Pak Nai and San Tin

Full day birding in this tripless period. Quite a number of migrants arrived (and I dipped the most). In Ho Man Tin, a female Black-naped Monarch was very active, warblers include Pale-legged and Arctic, and at least 2 Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, single Hainan and Asian Brown Flycatcher.

And the 1w Siberian Blue Robin at the feeding spot attracted number of photographers. Oops, the so-called wildlife lovers or birdwatchers again came out to blame feeding in HK but they forget their happy moment in overseas stakeouts, typical double-standard fuckers. 

Pak Nai... boring as expected. Arctic and Yellow-browed Warbler and I took some photos of the Grey-tailed Tattler. 

San Tin, even poorer, no Manchurian Reed Warbler nor Swiftlet sp. for me, nothing worth mentioning at all.

BigEar2020 is 196.

Ho Man Tin: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73529072
Pak Nai: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73532176

San Tin: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73531287

1w Siberian Blue Robin

1w Siberian Blue Robin

1w Siberian Blue Robin

1w Siberian Blue Robin

1w Siberian Blue Robin

1w Siberian Blue Robin

1w Siberian Blue Robin

1w Siberian Blue Robin

female Black-naped Monarch

female Black-naped Monarch

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler - confirmed by call

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler - confirmed by call

two Grey-tailed Tattler

Besra - a distant bird chasing Black Kite

Whiskered Tern and White-winged Tern

Black Kite

Euraisan Hobby - hoping for Eleonora's Falcon

Eurasian Collared Dove - probably adult and juv

Telford and Kai Tak 12 Sep 2020 - birdless

A birdless morning before rain, took the only photo with my phone.

Kai Tak: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73477282

morning from Kai Tak

Book Review - A Field Guide to the Birds of Malaysia and Singapore

Hong Kong is ultimately boring so I can only get my 'lifers' through webinar, online birding or reading books. I got my copy of A Field Guide to the Birds of Malaysia and Singapore yesterday, written by Lim Kim Sheng, Yong Ding Li and Lim Kim Chuah who are famous birder in SE Asia. 

There are lots of field guides of SE Asia, especially for Borneo (I also pre-order the Lynx guide for Malaysia, which is coming very soon). I expect a field guide published in 2020 should be better than those in my bookshelf, but sadly this is not the case.

I am quite disappointed with this book and I don't think this is a good field guide for visiting non-beginners, but a fair illustrated checklist which covers both Singapore and Malaysia. The following are my personal thoughts:

A Field Guide to the Birds of Malaysia and Singapore - not a big book so easy to carry

Taxonomy is not 100% updated and consistent. This book contains newly split or described species like Swinhoe's & Hume's White-eye, Spectacled Flowerpecker, Charlotte's Bulbul; but some are only mentioned without illustration or more information like Cream-eyed Bulbul Pycnonotus pseudosimplex and Olive Bulbul Olive Bulbul Iole viridescens; some like the Purple Swamphen complex even remain unsplit. 

Charlotte's Bulbul, split from Buff-vented Bulbul, becoming a endemic species in Borneo which you cannot find in the older field guide

However, I think lots of new (or even old) field guide split the Purple Swamphen complex (at least include a taxonomy note), as Grey-headed Swamphen and Black-backed Swamphen here.

content of the 'Purple Swamphen'

Style of content & illustration description is not consistent, maybe we can see the difference in style of different authors? 

Giant Pitta - named by scientific name in plate

Crested Fireback (not split in this book) - named by common name or place in plate

The illustration I would say, horrible, and some are useless or even wrong for identification. 

Northern vs Brown Boobook

guess what's this pale-eyed bird - Zitting Cisticola

I cannot tell this is a Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler without reading the content

and I never seen a Eastern-crowned Warbler like this

not to mention the pink legged Yellow-browed Warbler without fringes on tertials (but the tertials fringes are mentioned in the content part)

Illustration is bad doesn't mean the content can help separating easy-confusing species.

ID keys for separating confusing species are seldom mentioned in the content part. If there is, only a sentence or two like teaching you how to tell Bay from Maroon Woodpecker. Provided that the illustration is useless in ID.

When content and illustration cannot help, the mistake in numbering can guide you to the ultimate wrong ID.

number 2 and 4.....

The arrangement is poor too. The confusing species are not putting in the same plate.

I would expect Bridled and Sooty Tern on same plate

or Whiskered and White-winged Tern on same plate... and more examples....

Anyway, this is not a good field guide but still a fine way to learn more about birds of Malaysia and Singapore. I got my copy for around $200 HKD in https://www.bookdepository.com/

Ho Man Tin and Sai Kung 6 Sep 2020 - drive more than bird

 A visit to Ho Man Tin and Sai Kung today, mainly for practicing driving. Not many migrants but 4 Hainan Blue Flycatcher and the famous first winter Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher, a Cyornis day.

Ho Man Tin: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73238243

Sai Kung: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73241729

Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher - an official kick off of autumn

Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher

Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher

Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher