IDENTIFICATION

51-58 cm. Adult males are black with pale-mottled flanks, an upturned white patch extending from below a pale eye and an orange and red distal half of the bill. Males assume adult plumage from the second autumn but, like the bird illustrated, may not acquire the white on the head.

Females are brown with a large pale areas between the bill and eye and below and behind the eye. Juveniles have more extensive pale on the front part of the head extending to the mid crown and are paler on breast. All birds have white secondaries and greater coverts that form an obvious white patch in flight.

VOCALISATIONS

Usually, silent away from breeding grounds. The female has a low-pitched call resembling a distant or stifled dog’s bark.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS

Monotypic. Breeds in northeast Siberia including Sakhalin and Kamchatka south to Mongolia and northeast Kazakhstan, winters along western Pacific coasts from the western Aleutians and Commander Islands to east China (del Hoyo et al. 2020). In China it breeds in northern Xinjiang, and possibly in the northeast, and winters along the east coast and the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze (Liu and Chen 2020).

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

Has occurred on the sea in Inner and Outer Deep Bay.

OCCURRENCE

1982: a male off Pak Nai on 5 February (Chalmers 1984).

1985: an immature male and a female off Tsim Bei Tsui on 26 December.

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend decreasing.