Cheers
Mike K Author: ddavid Time: 23/12/2012 20:25
Mike
Ah, yes, but don't forget that Japanese Bush Warbler has joined the split ranks of Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, Arctic Warbler etc and at least two species are now said to occur in Hong Kong -
Manchurian Bush Warbler Horornis borealis
Japanese Bush Warbler Horornis diphone canturians
The following is taken from the website – about recent decisions to the HK List.
"Japanese / Manchurian Bush Warbler
The IOC have recently revised the taxonomy of this complex based on the findings of Alstrom et al. (2011) (http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2148-11-352.pdf). This has resulted in a change of genus name to Horornis, and the recognition of two species: Manchuria Bush Warbler H. borealis and Japanese Bush Warbler H. diphone, which includes the central Chinese breeding taxon that occurs in HK, canturians. A review of birds trapped for ringing over the years indicated that both species occur in HK, though the exact pattern of occurrence and habitat preferences of the two are as yet unclear. The net result is the addition of one species to Category I of the HK List.
It should also be noted that the treatment of canturians as a subspecies of diphone is tentative and that canturians may warrant species status (Alström et al. 2011) and as such a change of both English and scientific names may be required in the future."
John made some comments recently on a photo of a bird taken at Mai Po - see the following link.