cgeoff

At its meetings of 17th and 20th August, the Records Committee made the following changes to the HK List.

Plain-tailed Warbler Seicercus soror
On the basis of a bird photographed at Tai Po Kau on 9th October 2004, Plain-tailed Warbler has been added to the List. The difficulties in separation of the closely-related members of the 'spectacled warbler' group of species have prevented, until now, acceptance of this record.

Ashy Woodswallow Artamus fusus
One at Lower Shing Mun on 23 April 2011 was the first HK record.

Japanese Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus xanthodryas
The recent split of the Arctic Warbler complex into three species has been adopted by the IOC. On the basis of a sound recording of a singing bird at Kam Tin this spring, Japanese Leaf Warbler was added to the List. This species appears to be the most numerous spring migrant of the three. Arctic Warbler P. borealis remains on the HK List on the basis of analysis of DNA sampled from a number of birds trapped in autumn. This appears to be the commonest of the group at this time. The third and final member is Kamchatka Leaf Warbler P. examinandus, which has not been recorded but is likely to occur.

In addition, the IOC has made various changes to English and scientific names. The new scientific names, all relatively minor changes, were accepted automatically. New English names were accepted as follows (old names in brackets): Stejneger’s (Common) Stonechat, Cinereous (Great) Tit, Great (Eastern Great) Egret, Black (American) Scoter. The Committee, however, decided to retain the English name Domestic Pigeon, which it feels better reflects the species' habits and status in HK.

Other decisions included acceptance of the two records of White-winged Scoter Melanitta deglandi as referring to M.d. stejnegeri. Based on known wintering ranges of the three species in this group, the committee felt that the balance of probability was highly in favour of the HK records referring to stejnegeri.

Recent work on the Lesser Whitethroat complex has seen the IOC accept the split of Desert Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia minula from Lesser Whitethroat S. curruca. Review of the first record of Lesser Whitethroat at Long Valley on 9 October 2002 indicated that it could not be assigned to either minula or curruca, and so it is now accepted as Sylvia curruca/minula. The record of 15 October 2006, however, was trapped and its identity confirmed as S. curruca blythi. This now becomes the first record for HK. The third record at Lai Chi Kok park on 11 January 2008 will be reviewed in light of this.

The HK List now stands at 508 species, and the revised list is posted elsewhere on this website.

Geoff Carey
Chairman, Records Committee

Members: Gary Chow, Paul Leader, Richard Lewthwaite, Mike Leven, Yu Yat Tung
Secretary: Geoff Welch

[ Last edited by cgeoff at 22/08/2011 14:11 ]