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        Discussion Area 討論區 >> General 一般問題 >>  New species added to Xinjiang list 新疆添新鳥種:灰背伯勞
        
(Message started by: Project Officer on Aug 30^th, 2004, 9:34am)

Title: New species added to Xinjiang list 新疆添新鳥種:灰背伯勞
Post by Project Officer on Aug 30^th, 2004, 9:34am

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Rank"
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 6:52 PM
Subject: [OB] New species added to Xinjiang list

Grey-backed (or Tibetan) Shrike has been added to the Xinjiang list, Ma Ming and colleagues report. Two birds were seen on May 19, 2004 by Ma and a team from the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society in the Daftar region 50 km south of Taxkorgan county (37˚ 22' 21.5"N, 75˚ 24'09.8"E) at an elevation of 3,465m. This is a relatively lush region with farms surrounded by steppe and desert. They took at least 20 digital photographs and confirmed the id from Shrikes by Lefranc and Worfolk
(1997) (they give details to support this but an editor's note adds that the bird had (some?) chestnut on back and greyish tail feathers with black spots near the tip (?) indicate that there is scope to investigate subsp...).
They recorded 138 species in the Pamir plateau between May 8-23, including Pallid Scops Owl O. brucei, Corncrake C. crex and Sulphur-bellied Warbler  P. griseolus on May 18-19, firsts for the area.

Ma Ming et al, 2004, Grey-backed Shrike discovered in Xinjiang, Chinese Journal of Zoology, 39, part 4, p. 21 [in Chinese]

Another new(ish) species for Xinjiang is Yellowhammer E. citrinella, first found by Hou Lanxin in October 1981 in the Ili valley and on July 11, 1983 in Altay (Xiang et al, Xinjiang Univ Journal, 1988).  Article gives details of records in Ili valley up to 1,900 metres where winter
visitor, arrives later than others, not till late October.

Hou Lanxin, 2004, The wintering of eastern yellow bunting in Xinjiang, Chinese Journal of Zoology, 39, part 4, pp. 90-91 [in Chinese]

Also in this issue: articles on water birds in Mianyang, Sichuan (58 spp listed), avifauna of Yangtse river basin, nest-building behaviour of brown shrike L. cristatus.

New book on black-faced spoonbill in Macau

Not to speak of first Beijing record of Swinhoe's striped squirrel Tamiops swinhoei, at Xiaolongmen, I had squirrel stew there a few years ago, and very tasty it was too...

Michael Rank