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Verditer Flycatcher Female ?

KFBG, 14th, Feb, 2013

Same bird in both photos. This bird flew quickly to Kwun Yum Shan!

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/72557720@N08/8473685036/][img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8227/8473685036_d7ccf8ed82_c.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/72557720@N08/8473685208/][img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8473685208_1ed5b3b398_c.jpg[/img][/url]

Thanks

This is a very vibrant blue- what a beautiful bird.  Could this be a pale blue flycatcher?  I ask because the breast appears grey and the area before the eye (lore) very light.  Isn't this area normally darker in a veridter?  The beak looks too small for Pale Blue though after looking at OBC images.  

Dylan

[[i] Last edited by subbuteo at 14/02/2013 22:41 [/i]]

At last! The start of the annual'Is it a Pale Blue Flycatcher?' season, albeit rather later than usual, I think.

Looks good to me, but I've a track record of saying that for most of them.

I thought you'd be trawling the verditer images again!  You're right, it is that time of year.

Just saw these [url=http://www.hkwildlife.net/viewthread.php?tid=79111]photos[/url]

This bird looks very similar- I have always seen verditer to be have a strong greenish tinge but I think I have only seen them above the canopy or out in the open.  Perhaps the filtered light in forest gives them a more blue tinge.   The bird in the link also seems to have a stouter shorter bill than the pale blue flycatcher images online.

However, [url=http://www.panoramio.com/photo/31091663]here[/url] is another which looks very similar but is claimed as Pale Blue!

Dylan

[[i] Last edited by subbuteo at 15/02/2013 06:08 [/i]]

There is no photo editing.

And the bird stood in a quite open position. The blue colour is special, it is like a sapphire

You're right about this being an annual event - Is it Pale Blue or is it a Verditer?

And once again I'm going to be the one to swoop in and say that this is a female Verditer - structure looks typical for Verditer and females usually have a grey breast/grey lores, as shown on this bird. The tone of the blue is normal for Verditer I would say.

I'm not going to go too much through old ground on this because there has been considerable discussion in the past. See these two threads for discussion on separation of these two species:
[url]http://www.hkbws.org.hk/BBS/viewthread.php?tid=10100&highlight=verditer[/url]
[url]http://www.hkbws.org.hk/BBS/viewthread.php?tid=15199&highlight=verditer[/url]

Spoilsport.  :-)

I agree on structure, especially on the beak, but it is lovely pale blue!  

Dylan

Ps I did try searching for the old threads before posting but I find the search on here very fickle. It didn't bring up those threads. Thanks, John.