tomatofamily

7/12/2014
Bride's Pool.

I was suggested to start a mystery bird discussion for the following bird saw just briefly over Bride's Pool area, Fanling, which has been posted on other link.  http://www.hkbws.org.hk/BBS/redi ... o=lastpost#lastpost







Thanks in advance.

Best

Eric

[ Last edited by tomatofamily at 8/12/2014 21:18 ]

kmatthew

In reply to Paul on earlier thread on the Brides Pool post, yes I think you are right it's probably not an Asian Brown but honestly that's the closest thing that I can match with this! The lack of any eye-ring also bugs me...Legs colour, bill colouration and back colours kind of match EXCEPT for the huge eyes with no eye-rings, dark ear coverts and what seems to be faint eyebrows? Is it just me or is does this bird have a forked tail? Look at the first photo where the two outer tail feather project below the branch.

esther03166

My friend PY also took some pictures of the mystery bird at Bride's Pool on 6Dec and 7Dec too

6Dec14
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7Dec14
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Ronaldo

Still looks like a very damaged ABF to me. Wondering if not an ex-captive bird...

A good picture for comparison
http://orientalbirdimages.org/se ... _ID=&pagesize=1

lpaul

If you ignore the head pattern, bill length and black legs, this could be an Asian Brown Flycatcher, but that's a lot to ignore!!

lmichael

I concur with Paul that what it is not is Asian Brown Flycatcher.

I think it is likely ex-captive but that does not detract from the challenge of identifying it - so far I am not even sure what family or continent it is from!

Cheers

Mike Leven

ajohn

Do you have any more information that may help in the discussion? A description of behaviour or call might be useful.
Also, could you describe where you saw the bird in case others are interested to look for it.

kmatthew

I went and saw the mystery bird today, it was just around the Bride's Pool picnic area next to the speed camera, it was hawking for insects in the area but was mobbed by three Chinese Bulbuls constantly. It sure looked weird, behaviour wise it really seems like a normal flycatcher, but feathers are in very poor condition, only the outer tail feathers are "intact", some in the middle have fallen out hence giving it the "forked" tail. It does cocks up it's tail quite often when perched. Most of all, it made a call and I recorded it with my iphone, not sure how to upload the sound file here, but I matched it with an Asian Brown Flycatcher on Xeno-Canto:

http://www.xeno-canto.org/sounds ... e_c_140929b_sub.mp3

Pretty much 95% match, so perhaps it really is an Asian Brown? but yet again, the call of Asian Brown is not that distinctive and there could be other species out there that sounds similar? Got some photographs I can post later.

[ Last edited by kmatthew at 9/12/2014 18:21 ]

kmatthew

Here are a few of mine:







last shot shows a fairly broad bill base.