wgeoff

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 ]

wgeoff

Good photo Owen. This shows the colours perfectly.

wgeoff

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.

wgeoff

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.