wleepoin

Lok Ma Chau
5th October, 2010

Thanks Paul L for the call & John H & Ah Wai for the free rides.

PS-Same bird but under different lighting & background.

Cheers
PWMK

[ Last edited by wleepoin at 6/10/2010 08:04 ]

John Holmes

Another angle of the same bird.

ypakwai

Thank you Paul, John and PWMK

thinfor

Thanks all for the sharing of this great subspecies!

May I ask how to differentiate between this maura ss and the one we usually see in HK?    Any diagnostic features?

ajohn

Earlier this year, IOC (and therefore HKBWS) adopted a split in Siberian Stonechat, separating the Eastern stejnegeri as a separate species (Stejneger's Stonechat) from the more westerly maurus (and other subspecies). The common form in Hong Kong is Stejneger's, thus this bird is a potential new species for Hong Kong!

Separation of the two is still slightly uncertain: Paul Leader is looking into how they are different. The most notable differences compared to typical Hong Kong birds are that this individual seems paler (above and below), with a stronger supercilium.

John Holmes

A couple more shots of "maurus" ??? stonechat at LMC, with what I trust is "stejnegeri" for comparison  (2010-Oct-06)

tmichael

Maybe just me but I can't see any obvious difference.

The original maurus photos did look a bit unusual (supercilium anyway) but John's putative stejnegeri - presumably just another random Stonechat that happened to be around nearby? - looks to have a very similar super and to be otherwise identical except maybe in the crown streaking.

Mike Turnbull

tmichael

Also whiter alula, if that's what it is.

Mike Turnbull