Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Cyornis puzzle

A short visit to the Ministry of Public Relations early morning gave me brief views of an immature female Cyornis flycatcher spp. which had an extensively pale lower mandible and rather washed-out pale orange throat.  The choices in terms of assigning it to species are Hill Blue, Hainan, Chinese Blue and Large Blue but I'm not yet in a position to suggest which it was (though I'm leaning towards Hainan) - the more one looks at the complexities of Cyornis identification, the less certain things can become, so I need to do more reading.

The MOPR also delivered my first Black-naped Monarch of the autumn and the Asian Paradise Flycatcher that I found last Friday is still present today.  Other regular migrants included three Brown Shrikes, one Yellow-browed Warbler, three Asian Brown Flycatchers, one Black-naped Oriole and one leucogenis Ashy Drongo.

No comments: