Thursday, September 30, 2010

Taiga, Taiga, Taiga!

Late afternoon trip to Suan Rot Fai (1710 - 1805 hrs) was looking a bit birdless until I stumbled upon my first TAIGA FLYCATCHER of the autumn...then another, and another!  A little late compared to the last couple of years (first arrival dates being 25th Sept 2008 and 27th Sept 2009).

Today's three birds were all in one small area, with two birds giving strange, loud, nasal squeaking calls rather than the usual "purr" - I've looked on Xeno-canto but cannot find anything similar.  When I first heard the call I didn't even attribute it to being a Taiga (it sounded almost like it should have been coming from a squirrel!).

Other than these birds I saw no other migrants whatsoever.  There was an email posted on the Oriental Birding forum yesterday from somebody in India who was suggesting that maybe Taiga Flycatchers migrate in flocks - I thought that was rather a strange claim, but today's experience might support such a hypothesis (the two calling birds seemed to be calling to one another).

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