Nordmann’s Greenshank Tringa guttifer 小青腳鷸
Category I. Scarce passage migrant in spring, rare at other times and possibly in decline. Largely occurs in Deep Bay intertidal areas.
IDENTIFICATION
Apr. 2017, Michelle and Peter Wong. Adult, breeding plumage.
28-34 cm. Similar to Common Greenshank but less elegant, stockier and more front-heavy with shorter legs. The bill is relatively longer, blunter and more deeply-based, and on a frontal view is more circular. At some distance it resembles Terek Sandpiper in a way that Common Greenshank does not due to its upturned bill, front heavy silhouette, yellow legs and foraging behaviour when it pursues crabs.
Birds in breeding plumage have broad white chevrons around the tips of upperpart feathers and white V-shaped spots around the edge of the tertials; the overall pattern is less variegated than that on breeding plumage Common Greenshank. In full breeding plumage there is dense blackish spotting below, though this is rarely seen in HK.
Feb. 2011, Martin Hale. Adult, non-breeding plumage.
In winter plumage the upperparts are pale grey and uniform, lacking darker subterminal marks on the tertials and coverts, and the underparts are largely white.
Sep. 2017, Michelle and Peter Wong. Juvenile moulting into first-winter plumage.
This bird is moulting into first-winter plumage. The pale fringed brown juvenile feathers of the scapulars and coverts are being replaced by grey adult-type feathers.
Apr. 2018, Michelle and Peter Wong. Adult, breeding plumage.
Compared to Common Greenshank in flight has a shorter projection of toes beyond the tail, a shorter extension of white up the back that only reaches the mid part of the wings, whitish (rather than grey-barred) underwing coverts and slightly broader-based wings. The typical flight call is very different to that of Common Greenshank.
VOCALISATIONS
The flight call is a short ‘gwok’, very different from Common Greenshank.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Almost all records of Nordmann’s Greenshank have occurred on the intertidal mudflats of Deep Bay and adjacent roosting areas on Mai Po NR. The sole record away from here is of a juvenile moulting into winter plumage at Nai Chung, near Ma On Shan on 18 September 2010.
OCCURRENCE
Nordmann’s Greenshank is primarily a spring passage migrant, though there are a small number of records during autumn and winter.
The earliest birds in spring probably occur in mid-March. Based on systematic shorebird counts since 1998 (Figure 1) passage peaks in the first half of April. The highest counts are 58 on 13 April 1993 (with 48 the following day) and 46 on 8 April 1991 and 9 April 2007. Beginning the middle of the month there is a marked decline, while the end of April generally sees the arrival of the earliest first-summer birds (identified based on plumage in the field). This second influx peaks in the second half of May, with the highest count being 15 on 17 May 1996. Numbers then decline slowly until late May, and there is a less than annual trickle of records during June. The latest record is on 26 June 1989, followed by one on 26 July 2015. Figure 2 illustrates peak spring counts since the mid-1980s and indicates that there may have been a decline in numbers over the past ten years.
Return passage has been noted from 5 September and is very weak, with mainly singles, rarely two birds, recorded. Birds are present in most winter periods, usually one, occasionally two and on one occasion three.
The first record of Nordmann’s Greenshank occurred on 8 September 1968, but there were only nine records until spring 1986. However, the publication of Kennerley and Bakewell (1987) enhanced awareness of the identification of the species resulting in a significant increase in records from spring 1987.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Active and mobile when foraging on the mudflats; may chase down crabs after a fast and targeted run in the manner of Terek Sandpiper. Also catches small fish.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds in the Far East around the Sea of Okhotsk and on Sakhalin Island. Passes through east Asian coastal wetlands to winter mainly in Myanmar, Thailand, peninsular Malaysia, western Indonesia and Bangladesh, with small numbers elsewhere in Asia. In China passes through coastal areas on migration (Liu and Chen 2020); based on Hong Kong records, rarely winters along the south coast.
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: ENDANGERED. A very small population estimated at 600-1,300 birds that is declining as a result of coastal development.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Kennerley, P. R. and D. N. Bakewell (1987). Nordmann’s Greenshank in Hong Kong: a review of the identification and status. Hong Kong Bird Report 1986: 83-100.
Liu, Y. and Y. H. Chen (eds) (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Maleko, P. N., V. V. Pronkevich, and K. S. Maslovsky (2021). Nordmann's Greenshank (Tringa guttifer), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, P. G. Rodewald, and B. K. Keeney, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.norgre1.02
