handrew

I saw this bird at the Lions Nature Education Centre today at about 12.30pm. My immediate reaction was that it was a chat but it looked quite large. However I was recently fooled by a Bluethroat which looked unusually large. However this could be a thrush. It was photographed at some considerable distance with a 400mm lens and the images are still big crops. If it were a chat, there was no tail shimmering and it looked very upright and robust. The tail was frequently cocked revealing white under-tail coverts. The head looked plain and the breast unstreaked. The wings had a chestnuty sheen in some light as I moved around to try and get a better view. It was found below the nature trail for those who know the area. When it finally flew it made a short single sibillant call - tsiip - not the call of the Olive-backed pipits which frequent this area too.

Other birds in the area were Red-throated flycatcher (2), Asian Brown Flycatcher, Olive-backed pipit and Red-flanked Bluetail. Any help appreciated.

gary

This is a thrush, but not a chat, many reasons that left you to discovery.
However, more important is this bird looks like a Grey-sided Thrush, a potential first record for Hong Kong.
Please post more photo of this bird, and disclose the location if you don't mind.

Gary

yyattung

Oh Gary.... You 'steal' my place!!!

I am just checking books... I think it could be a Grey-sided Thrush!

Andrew: more photos?

handrew

Waaahhhh! The location was, as stated, The Lions Nature Education Centre a couple of kms from Sai Kung coming from my home in Clearwater Bay. It is on the right hand side of the road and there is good parking - it opens at 9.30am. More specifically I saw it when I was on the path leading past the 'sculpture' of the Lantern Bug. Just past there on the right are some piles of upside down pots and the path leads through to the nature trail. I only have 2 more images - both added.

Looking in Clement and Hathway I have to say that Grey-sided thrush appears to have a clear supercilium. It also warns of confusion with Eyebrowed thrush. I actually sent a pm to John Holmes yesterday mentioning an Eyebrowed thrush at this location but this is absolutely NOT the same bird.

Intruiging.

yyattung

Have a look of these photos!

WWF China Photo Gallery

China Ornithological Society Photo Database

handrew

Had a look - clearly the first is a better match potentially. The face certainly didn't have the distinct supercilium of the second photo. However in picture no. 1 the bird looks quite dark on the breast and almost scaly though I am sure I would not have seen that level of detail at such a distance.

http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?p=5&action=searchresult&Bird_ID=2427&Bird_Family_ID=&pagesize=1

this is quite a good match too from the OBC Images gallery, as is this:

http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?p=7&action=searchresult&Bird_ID=2427&Bird_Family_ID=&pagesize=1

tmichael

I think this may be a Grey-sided Thrush, and thus a first for HK.

If so, I am officially the first person to have dipped on it having spent the last 15 minutes of light looking for it, but seeing nothing more than a Pale Thrush - beware of that one!

Btw the park is open access - it's just the big car park that only opens at 9.30am. I guess there will be morning dog walkers in there early, and may be exercisers!

Quite a lot of parking elsewhere eg along the road past the entrance to the left towards Tsiu Hang village.

You can't miss the Lantern Bug, just by the veggies and the Dragonfly pond.

Also, amazing how you can re-write history these days ;-)

Mike Turnbull

handrew

Good point about access Mike. The park is actually closed on Tuesday but I didn't realise. The car park was open anyway so I just went in and wandered for a couple of hours, completely alone. I don't know whether there will be a "twitch" - I'm back at work tomorrow - but perhaps someone should explain to the park why hordes (?) of people may descend on a small area of the grounds tomorrow! I do hope it is refound and the ID proves correct. Good luck.

tgraham

I was in the park from first light for an hour and a half and had no joy though we did see White's, Grey backed and Pale Thrush.

Will try again tomorrow

HK Twitcher

sdavid

Great find there! Is this a result of the recent cold weather do you think?

Just as an aside, by coincidence, yesterday I was reading some back issues of Porcupine! HKU's periodical and noted a record of Grey-sided Thrush in 1992 found at Kop Tong near Wu KAu Tang:

http://www.hku.hk/ecology/porcupine/acrodata/porc03.pdf

I guess this record was never accepted.

lmichael

I can see why Grey-sided Thrush has been suggested for this bird but it looks like a Pale Thrush to me for the following reasons:

- strong legs and long tail, quite a large thrush. Grey-sided is small and short-tailed like eye-browed (which takes a smaller ring size than Pale).

- head pattern not strong enough for a Grey-sided even a first winter - look at photos on the OB site. Grey-sided always show two white stripes, above and below the eye and a dark eye stripe.

- grey 'sides' can be weak in first winter Grey-sided but this is just rather dull grey below, not showing a distinction between the flanks and belly.

Mike Leven

handrew

As Mike has come out for Pale Thrush I would like to say that John Holmes also e mailed me privately overnight saying he felt it was Pale Thrush (I hope you don't mind me disclosing this John). There are it seems birds of this species which don't show the white tail tips. I suspect it may not be possible to state definitively one way or the other but as the "finder" I would prefer to err on the side of caution!

lmichael

I don't have references to hand but I can only remember one Grey-sided Thrush claim in HK - I think that this was the one referred to by David.

From memory that record was not accepted as it was considered that  a dull Eye-browed Thrush was not ruled out. (Long before the digital photo days!)

Mike

tmichael

I too had become concerned I'd got caught up in a kind of collective hysteria over this bird.

I felt the first photo really didn't look like a Pale Thrush being, rather ironically too pale, but I guess what is lacking is the contrast between grey sides and a paler belly/central area.

The other pictures did look rather more Pale Thrush like.

Mike's points about relative sizes is informative.

Is it true that Pale Thrush doesn't always show white in the tail on reasonable flight views? It seems to me you never see it in photos of standing birds certainly.

Mike Turnbull.