tomatofamily

During this causal visit to Beijing from 27th Dec. 2012 to 2nd Jan, 2013, so glad that even under very cold weather, we still saw and captured the following birds: (saw Eurasian Hoopoe once but was not able to take a photo of it)

Asian Azure-winged Magpie


Blue Magpie


Brambling


Dusky Thrush


Grey-capped Greenfinches


Common Magpie


Spotted Dove


Tree Sparrows


White-cheeked Starlings


Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker (thanks Ronaldo for providing the name)


Yellow-billed Grosbeaks


Please correct me if there are mistakes.
Thanks for viewing.
Eric

[ Last edited by tomatofamily at 6/01/2013 22:43 ]

Ronaldo

Dusky Thrush looks more like a Naumann's Thrush (or a hybrid?)

Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker.

tomatofamily

Thanks Ronaldo so much for viewing and providing me the information.  I googled the name Naumann's Thrush, and found Naumann's and Dusky are to me interchangeable or what it was called conspecific, although I am not sure that I understand that term.  I provide herewith three more photos of this species in different angle and location:

Ronaldo

Dusky would have prominent black dots on the breast, while Naumann's is more reddish. I think it is a hybrid, which are frequent in Beijing.

tomatofamily

According to Wikipedia, bird hybrid is "a bird that has two different species as parents. The resulting bird can present with any combination of characters from the parent species, from totally identical to completely different. Usually, the bird hybrid shows intermediate characteristics between the two species. A “successful” hybrid is one demonstrated to produce fertile offspring."

Very interesting.  I have learned something here.  Thanks so much Ronaldo for the info.