Chinese Sparrowhawk Accipiter soloensis 赤腹鷹
Category I. Common passage migrant in spring, scarce in autumn; occurs throughout HK.
IDENTIFICATION
Apr. 2019, Paul Leader. Adult male.
25-35 cm. Small Accipiter with relatively narrow pointed wings (p3 is the longest primary), a short tail that has 4-6 thin dark incomplete bars, rather deep bill and prominent orange-yellow cere that can be seen when approaching head-on (DeCandido et al. 2014). Level flight usually has more gliding than other small accipiters in HK. Adults variable blue-grey above with paler head, darker primaries and indistinct darker tail bars; below the white underwing coverts contrast markedly with black primary tips.
Adult males such as the bird illustrated have a pale peach wash to chest with limited slightly darker barring and dark red to vinous-brown eyes.
Apr. 2017, Michelle and Peter Wong. Adult female.
Adult females, which are only slightly larger, are rufous-brown or orange-brown on the chest and belly with more barring and have yellow eyes.
Sep. 2015, Dalian, China. Tom Beeke.
Juveniles are dark brown above with paler fringes and usually have little or moderate marking on the underwing coverts, pale underparts with large rufous-tinged streaks and bars. The uppertail has narrow dark bands. The long 3rd primary is visible on this photograph. Unlike adults, the black tips to the primaries are not well marked.
Apr. 2010, John and Jemi Holmes.
Adults have distinctive white underwings with distinct black tips. On immature birds the dark tips are not so clear-cut.
May 2007, Michelle and Peter Wong. Second calendar-year.
That this bird is in its first spring can be seen by the contrast of brown juvenile and grey adult-type feathers on the upperparts and the rather worn flight feathers and tail.
VOCALISATIONS
A repeated short ‘keeyoo’ that rises then falls in pitch.
A ‘chewee-chewee-chewee-chewee-chewee‘, each element falling and rising in pitch.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Most sightings are over lightly-wooded hillsides or marshes in widespread parts of the New Territories and HK Island.
OCCURRENCE
Figure 1 illustrates the pattern of occurrence since 1999 and indicates that the highest numbers are recorded from the second week of April to the first week of May, peaking in the first half of that period. Extreme dates in spring are 29 March 2009 and 6 June 2010. Annual totals vary considerably.
Most reports refer to single birds or small groups of up to five but counts of over 100 have been noted flying north on several occasions, with the highest being 1,440 flying over Po Toi from the direction of the Dangan Islands on 15 April 2010. The next highest count is 780 over the same island on 16 April 2006, with 299 there the previous day.
Unlike spring passage, no large flocks have been recorded in autumn, with the highest count being of five birds on three occasions during 18-30 October. Extreme dates in autumn are 24 August 2020 and 12 November 1989, peaking in the last week of September and first week of October.
It seems likely that Chinese Sparrowhawk was overlooked in the past. Though it had earlier been recorded in Guangdong (Mell 1922, Jabouille 1935), the only pre-1958 reports for HK were from the central and northern New Territories during 15-23 April 1953 (Dove and Goodhart 1955). The next record was of one at Pok Fu Lam on 21 April 1965 followed by singles on three dates in 1973 and 1977, after which it was recorded annually.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Cicadas are a commonly observed prey species. In addition, Bowring’s Gecko Hemidactylus bowringii has been recorded as prey. Chinese Sparrowhawk is much more likely to allow close approach when perched compared to other accipiters in HK.
One of only two raptor species that regularly passes through sizeable flocks, and during suitable weather conditions it can be seen in large numbers on spring migration. Considerable year-on-year variation in numbers occurs as passage is heavily influenced by weather patterns, arrivals typically occurring two to five days after surges of the northeast monsoon, with the Philippines being the likely source of birds (Lam and Williams 1994). Like the other weather-influenced raptor migrant Grey-faced Buzzard, Chinese Sparrowhawks generally pass through HK quickly.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds in northeast China south to southern Ussuriland, Korea and south China; winters in Hainan, the Philippines and Indonesia (Oorta and Kirwan 2020).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend decreasing.
Figure 1.
De, Candido, R., N. Chukiat, M. Siponen, K. Sutasha A. Pierce, J. Murray and P. D. Round (2014). Flight identification and plumage descriptions of six Accipiter species on southbound migration at Khao Dinsor, Chumphon province, Thailand. BirdingAsia 21: 52-62.
Dove, R. S. and H. J. Goodhart (1955). Field observations from the Colony of Hong Kong. Ibis 97: 311-340.
Jabouille, P. (1935). Une collection d’oiseaux du territoire du Kouang-tcheou-wan. Rev. Fr. Ornithol. 5: 34-69.
Lam, C. Y. and M. D. Williams (1994). Weather and bird migration in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Bird Report 1993: 139-169.
Mell, R. (1922). Beitrage zur Fauna sinica. Archiv fur Naturgeschichte 88 (10): 1-100.
Orta, J. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Chinese Sparrowhawk (Accipiter soloensis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.grfhaw1.01
