Happy New Year!
Yesterday (3rd January) I did my first bit of 2016 birding at Suan Rot Fai. There were a few common winterers around (five Asian Brown Flycatchers, 7 Taiga Flycatchers, at least four Brown Shrikes and a single Thick-billed Warbler) plus a couple of bonus birds. The first of these was a patch tick in the form of a Spot-billed Pelican that flew over the park a couple of times as the sun rose.
The other bonus bird was a Seicercus warbler spp. that was calling regularly and gave prolonged but rather poo views. This bird was obviously part of the "Golden Spectacled Warbler" complex, which in Thailand is made up of four species (Alstrom's, Bianchi's, Grey-crowned, and Marten's). Whilst these species are nightmarishly inseparable on plumage, they are pretty straight forward to ID on call, so a quick in-the-filed check of each species on Xeno Canto confirmed this bird as an Alstrom's Warbler (also known as "Plain-tailed Warbler"). I have seen Alstrom's in the park before, but always on passage in September, so a mid-winter record is notable, though a bit disappointing not to be of one of the less expected congeners.
Yesterday (3rd January) I did my first bit of 2016 birding at Suan Rot Fai. There were a few common winterers around (five Asian Brown Flycatchers, 7 Taiga Flycatchers, at least four Brown Shrikes and a single Thick-billed Warbler) plus a couple of bonus birds. The first of these was a patch tick in the form of a Spot-billed Pelican that flew over the park a couple of times as the sun rose.
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| Spot-billed Pelican |
The other bonus bird was a Seicercus warbler spp. that was calling regularly and gave prolonged but rather poo views. This bird was obviously part of the "Golden Spectacled Warbler" complex, which in Thailand is made up of four species (Alstrom's, Bianchi's, Grey-crowned, and Marten's). Whilst these species are nightmarishly inseparable on plumage, they are pretty straight forward to ID on call, so a quick in-the-filed check of each species on Xeno Canto confirmed this bird as an Alstrom's Warbler (also known as "Plain-tailed Warbler"). I have seen Alstrom's in the park before, but always on passage in September, so a mid-winter record is notable, though a bit disappointing not to be of one of the less expected congeners.
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| Alstrom's Warbler |
1 comment:
Hi Dave,
I have been trying to find your email id. Could you please reply
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