Bandrew

Can someone please help with Id's for the following photos.

All were taken on Po Toi Island last Sunday [20th November]

Thanks for the help in advance and sorry for the quality of the photos!

John Holmes

8362 - Yellow-browed Warbler (wing bars too prominent for Arctic)

8553 - Japanese Thrush (f)

8473 - possibly Blue Rock Thrush but head shape doesn't look right.

8381 - Yes, Grey-headed Flycatcher

Bandrew

Thanks for your help John!

Can never get the hang of identifying Warblers so thank you for that. Can I ask if you know of a good guide to identifying Warblers. I do have the "Naturalists Guide to Birds of Hong Kong"& "The Birds of Hong Kong and South China" but still struggle with them. I usually end up looking at other photos online to try and find an accurate match.

As for the 3rd picture, I went for a cuckoo as the body shape looked too long and the beak too rounded. Only got a brief view and there were a couple of Blue rock thrushes around so your advice is probably right.

Three first's [with a Mugimaki Flycatcher] so overall a rewarding trip.

Thanks again

Andrew

John Holmes

Andrew,

"The Birds of Hong Kong and South China" is a good start for most birds locally.  Warblers are tricky, and the call can be important, so drawings/photos don't always clinch the ID.

Oriental Bird Images is a good online resource for bird photos.

On reflection, perhaps your third photo is a Black-winged Cuckooshrike - I haven't seen this juvenile plumage before.

John

Bandrew

Hi John,

Thanks for the information. I'll persevere with the warblers and hopefully will start to recognise the calls in time.

Just looked at some images for the Black-winged Cuckoo shrike and the head, body and beak shape certainly look better proportioned. Unfortunately, due to the quality of my photo, it's difficult to see the markings and the plumage as the image looks rather dark.

Thanks once again for your help and advice.

Andrew

ajohn

I'm sure the third photo is a Blue Rock Thrush. The plumage looks a perfect fit to BRT to me (blue-grey plumage with paler fringes, white spots on tips of wing coverts).
I think the head looks strangely proportioned because it is alert (neck stretched slightly) and looking away from the camera (making the bill look short).

subbuteo

Someone shared this phylloscopus id guide a while ago and it has very useful pointers.  I often see mysterious warblers!

http://www.artdatabanken.se/medi ... ov-2012-english.pdf

Dylan

Bandrew

Thanks to everybody for their advice. I took a trip out to Po Toi again today and came across a Blue rock thrush showing similar behavior so that seemed to answer the identification question.

Dylan: Thanks for the Warbler guide. I'm looking forward to studying it and then trying to recognize the calls!