IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

Sings throughout the year but most vocal between April and July.  The occasionally mimetic song is rich, varied and loud, hence its long history as a cagebird in Chinese culture. It incorporates many loudly whistled notes interspersed with harsh, fairly thin churring sounds.

Common calls include a throaty rattle, a higher-pitched dry trill and an inflected dry ‘gooik’ or similar.

Xeno-canto does not allow free access to recordings of this species.

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

Chinese Hwamei is one of the most characteristic species of shrubland in HK. Leven (2000) found it to be the seventh most common breeding species in a survey of shrubland sites in the territory. Chinese Hwamei appears to be equally at home at all elevations in both open and closed-canopy shrubland. It is absent from more mature forest and grassland, though it will use patches of dwarf bamboo on the higher mountains, the edge of secondary woodland in winter, and, perhaps surprisingly, there are several recent records of birds singing in the Mai Po mangroves in summer.

The distribution mapped in the 1993-96 breeding bird atlas, when it was recorded in 43.3% of squares, indicated its stronghold was on HK Island, with few in the northwest New Territories. The 2016-19 breeding bird atlas showed both a marked decline overall, with its being found in only 27.1% of squares, and a reduction in range, with the decline being particularly marked on HK Island and in the central New Territories; its strongholds are now in east and northeast New Territories and western Lantau Island. The winter atlas surveys also show a decline (from 27.6% of squares in 2001-05 to 18.6% in 2016-19); the lower numbers recorded at this season doubtless due to its being much less detectable when not vocalising. This decline almost certainly reflects the succession of former shrubland areas to woodland, a process that has been particularly marked on the hills of HK Island and the central New Territories in the current century.

It is possible that the marked increase in the population of Black-throated Laughingthrush may also be a factor, and that Chinese Hwamei may be excluded by that species: the two species rarely occur sympatrically. Indeed, at some sites (e.g., Shek Wu Wai in the northwest New Territories), Black-throated Laughingthrush occupies the wooded lower slopes and Chinese Hwamei the shrubland higher up the hills. However, the extent to which this niche segregation reflects habitat requirements or competitive exclusion is unknown.

Chinese Hwamei is present on many of the offshore islands but is absent from the most remote, including Po Toi and, perhaps more surprisingly, Hei Ling Chau and Sunshine Island. While it was noted on Tung Ping Chau and the Soko Islands in the 1990s, there are no records from these sites during any of the four Atlas surveys or on eBird up to 2023. Clarification of its status on these islands is desirable. 

OCCURRENCE

Chinese Hwamei appears to be entirely sedentary with limited dispersal ability, as is evinced by its absence from some offshore islands, and there is no evidence of any movements.

Historically, Chinese Hwamei has been recorded in HK since the time of Swinhoe (1861) who noted that a ‘few “Hwa-meis” may constantly be heard singing among the bushes on the almost precipitous sides of the lofty hills of Hongkong’. Kershaw (1904), who largely collected around Macau, stated that he had only seen the species on HK Island, Dove and Goodhart (1955) did not record the species in the New Territories, whilst Herklots (1953) stated that records from the New Territories were ‘remarkably few’. Not until the time of Chalmers (1986) was Chinese Hwamei considered to be ‘fairly common and widely distributed in the New Territories’, with the increase thought to be a consequence of a reduction in trapping pressure. It seems likely that the spread of shrubland habitat also played a part.

BREEDING

Hwamei was considered by Vaughan and Jones (1913) to be double-brooded, nesting between April and July. Herklots (1953) cited records from the beginning of May to the middle of June and considered that two or more broods might be raised. In this regard, a record of juveniles seen on 28 August 2005 appears likely to relate to a second brood. The rather large rough cup-shaped nest is placed on or close to the ground and is made of bamboo or other leaves and lined with pine needles or grass. Three or four bright glossy turquoise-blue eggs are laid (Vaughan and Jones 1913, Herklots 1953).

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET

Usually rather shy and most often detected via its loud, distinctive song, which is given for much of the year, Chinese Hwamei is usually found singly or in pairs or family parties, moving furtively through dense undergrowth or on the ground, where it is typically noisy but difficult to see well. It can be easier to see in song, when it often selects a slightly elevated position such as a stump or a bush (Vaughan and Jones 1913), but even then, it tends to be shy, diving into cover as soon as it sees an observer. In some locations, such as around temples, it may learn to take advantage of food provided or dropped by visitors and in such circumstances, it may be relatively confiding.

Considered to be insectivorous by Vaughan and Jones (1913), but an insectivore-frugivore by Leven (2000) who found fruit in 60% and invertebrate remains in 47% of faecal samples analysed. Chinese Hwamei typically forages by searching through thick vegetation or on the ground, where it makes use of its strong feet to push aside the leaf litter. As befits its typical foraging behaviour, most insects eaten are terrestrial or fossorial, predominantly Isoptera, Formicidae and Coleoptera. Fruit appears to be eaten opportunistically but includes some relatively large items, for example Microcos paniculata (Leven 2000), suggesting that Chinese Hwamei may be quite an important dispersal agent for plant species with larger fruit.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS

The native range of Chinese Hwamei is largely confined to China but extends into northern Laos and Vietnam (Collar and Robson 2020). In China it is present throughout the central and eastern provinces, as far west as eastern Yunnan and Sichuan and as far north as Shanxi, Henan and Shanghai (Liu and Chen 2021, BirdLife International 2018).

Feral populations are widespread in Hawaii, Japan and Taiwan, where hybridisation with the native endemic Taiwan Hwamei G. taewanus is a matter of conservation concern (Li et al. 2010). There are two subspecies: G. c. owstoni is endemic to Hainan Island, whilst P. c. canorus occurs throughout rest of its range, including HK.

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend unknown.