Original message posted bywcherry on 9/10/2006

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

I am very interested in the recent discussion about Asian Paradise Flycatcher and Japanese Paradise Flycatcher. Please correct me if I have identify this Paradise Flycatcher incorrectly.

Mai Po 10/09/06

Original message posted by geoff_welch on 10/10/2006


I think you have correctly identified this as Asian PF.

Compare with the photo of Japanese PF under Bird Identification, Paradise Flycatcher ID or Japanese Paradise Flycatcher in this section.



Notice the different colour of the wings (and back) - chestnut brown for Asian, dark brown for Japanese.

Also the front (breast) - light grey for Asian, lighter than the head colour, and dark grey for Japanese, the same as the head colour.  

These two birds are very obvious, but there are birds which appear more intermediate between the two and, as Mike Turnbull has suggested, maybe these are immature (female?) birds of one species or another. For instance, this photo of mine (Po Toi, 7th September), the back and wing colour seems intermediate although the breast colour is Japanese. I'm still not sure which one this is, I'd like any opinions.

Original message posted by David_Diskin on 10/10/2006

Geoff -

To me the bird in your photo is Japanese. The mantle is dark with a purplish tinge, and the tail - although not as dark as the mantle - lacks any bright chestnut. Both the mantle and tail form an obvious contrast with the paler fringes to the tertials and secondaries, giving the bird's upperparts a definite two-toned appearance. This two-toned appearance is common to many of the previous photos posted and I believe it is definitive of Japanese at this time of the year.

The photo of Asian here (and the one by kittykoo on Sep 22nd) shows far more uniform upperparts than on Japanese, with the tertials and secondaries being the same colour as the tail and the back being only slightly darker than these

Original message posted by sky4082 on 10/10/2006

羨慕死我啦!

Original message posted bywcherry on 11/10/2006

Thanks to Geoff and David, I am now more confident to distinguish between the 2 types of Paradise Flycatchers.

Original message posted bywcherry on 11/10/2006

不用羨慕啦！那天好運有觀鳥高手幫忙才看到好鳥，但我甚少這般好運的，吃白果 的日子就多得很！

Original message posted by geoff_welch on 13/10/2006

Dave

Sorry for not replying before but I have been on my desert island all week.

Thanks for the ID as Japanese, I thought it probably was but could not find any photos to confirm.  

Geoff