This flycatcher today (Saturday) on Po Toi showed signs of Red-breasted rather than Red-throated - call (not recorded, I did not have my recording equipment), pale lower mandible (like Asian Brown), buff underparts and brown upper tail coverts.
[ Last edited by wgeoff at 18/08/2010 17:41 ] Author: 深藍-Owen Time: 10/11/2007 19:03
Good photo Owen. This shows the colours perfectly. Author: 深藍-Owen Time: 10/11/2007 21:12
Thanks Geoff, add one red-throated pic at Oct 30, 2007 Po Toi for comparison.
Author: lpaul Time: 14/11/2007 12:35
This looks like a good first-winter Red-breasted Flyc to me. In addition to the points listed by Geoff the more uniform underparts lacking the well defined pale throat (similar to female Bluetail) also separate from Red-throated. Plus the larger more buff tips to the greater coverts are typical of first winter Red-breasted. Author: wgeoff Time: 16/11/2007 06:25
Thanks Paul.
There were two other points about this bird which, although not diagnostic, did separate it out.
Firstly, the shape was more slender than the dumpier shape of the Red-throated and Owen's comparison photos show this clearly.
Secondly, the bird was feeding in the mid to upper storey of trees, unlike Red-throated which normally skulks low down in the bushes.
Both these points are noted by Nial Moores on the Birds Korea website (www.birdskorea.org) under the ID section.
I have just come back from three days on Po Toi, unfortunately the bird was not seen, it appears to have left after the weekend.
Given that this is the second record on Po Toi this year, and there are records from Korea and Japan, I can't believe the eastern limit for Red-breasted Flycatcher is the Urals as most texts suggest. Author: lpaul Time: 16/11/2007 08:55
I have however seen Red-throated forage in the mid canopy on migration.
It does seem odd that the eastern edge of the breeding grounds is so far west, however there are other comparable examples such as Amur Falcon which breeds no further west than Qinghai, yet winters in Africa. I think a suggestion from John Allcock makes most sense; that it regularly winters further east than the literature suggests. This seems more likely than the distinctive males being overlooked on the breeding grounds or in the extensive Russian bird collections.
The real question now is how regular is it? Author: wgeoff Time: 16/11/2007 09:41
Yes, maybe these are first winter overshoots on autumn migration.
The other bird that comes to mind is Black-headed Bunting which is also a regular vagrant in Korea and Japan. Perhaps these Red-breasted Flycatchers are from the southern part of the Red-breasted Flycatcher range, the lower Caspian Sea or Caucasus area, and have overflown their normal wintering grounds in North Pakistan/India and carried on flying east.
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