wgeoff

Hi Guy

Although both Red-breasted and Red-throated sound like a rattle, there is a distinct difference between them in the speed of the rattle. Listen to the following sound, the first two calls are Red-breasted and the second two are Red-throated.

http://www.geoffwelch46.com/RBRTFLYSOUND00.mp3

Red-throated is much faster, as can be seen by the spacing of the sound lines on this sonogram (just a visual picture of the sound)




You should be able to tell the difference in the field

wgeoff

The call on Neil's video is quite clearly Red-breasted. Compare it with the two calls on my sound file above.

If I had a separate sound file taken from the video, I could analyse it and send you the details.

As Paul says above, this is the first adult male Red-breasted (i.e. with a full red breast) seen in Hong Kong. I had a partially red breasted second year bird last year but this is much better. You can just see the pale base to the lower bill on some of your photos but it's not as obvious as on some birds and it appears to be mostly hidden by small feathers under the base of the bill. Perhaps it's more a feature of younger birds.

Another excellent garden bird Guy

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 7/12/2010 06:47 ]

wgeoff

I have made the following sonogram of your bird by sound recording off Neil's video



You can see how well this corresponds with the Red-breasted sonogram above (first half of the above image).

Of course, it also sounds alike.

When I get back from Po Toi, I'll analyse the sound pattern and compare it with previous Red-breasted in Hong Kong.