I told the story to an experienced bird watcher in Japan and asked his opinion. Here is his comments.
Dear Lee-san,
Thank you for sending me an interesting information and pictures. Excude my delay in answering.
Yes, the Varied tit is distributed far from Hong Kong, isn't it?!...
I wonder where this bird come from to Hong Kong. Compare to our subspecies, varius this bird has more heavier, stouter bill and more deeper cream on the face. subspecies owstoni from Izu Island has rusty-orange forehead, chestnut of cheeks is continuous with all-chestnut underparts. subspecies amami from Okinawa has heavier bill and deeper cream face like as this bird but rufous on the under tail coverts as the flank.
subspeices castaneoventris from Taiwan has pure white face and upperparts dark blue-grey and underparts deep chestnut. In Japan among 8 subspecies, it's said that southern subspeices tend to have more heavier and stouter bill than northern one, so this bird might have come from the souhtern end of their distribution in main land China, don't you think?
Take
Takeyoshi MATSUO
