Hodgson's Redstart Phoenicurus hodgsoni 黑喉紅尾鴝
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
Dec. 2007, Geoff Welch.
Dec. 2007, Geoff Welch.
15cm. The female is rather plain and overall grey-brown. It has a pale eye ring and pale tips to the greater coverts forming a narrow wing bar. The underparts are greyish grading into a contrastingly paler belly and buff undertail coverts.
Identification of a bird out of its usual range is challenging. Compared to female Daurian Redstart it lacks the white panel in the wing (though this is also the case on a very small number of female Daurian Redstarts) and the warm tone to the underparts.
May 2005, Gansu, China. John and Jemi Holmes.
The adult male (not recorded in HK) is similar to male Daurian Redstart but has a more extensive black face that covers the upper breast and a smaller white wing panel. Black Redstart of the races rufiventris and phoenicuroides have a darker crown and upperparts and lack the white wing panel (although some phoenicuroides may show a small one).
VOCALISATIONS
The bird on Po Toi gave a ‘tik tik’ call, rather like a European Robin Erithacus rubecula. This is thinner and harder than the equivalent call of Daurian Redstart. There is also a ‘seep’ call slightly higher-pitched and thinner than that of Daurian and lacking the terminal fall in pitch.
OCCURRENCE
2007: a female was on Po Toi on 11 December (Welch 2011).
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING AND DIET
The bird on Po Toi was seen perching on prominent branches flycatching.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds in China from the east and southeast Tibetan Plateau east to east Qinghai, west and south Gansu and south Shaanxi, south to west Sichuan and northwest Yunnan. It winters south and east of the breeding range in west Nepal east to central and south China (east Sichuan, south Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and east Yunnan), and north Myanmar (Clement and Rose 2015).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.
Clement, P. and C. Rose (2015). Robins and Chats. Christopher Helm, London.
Welch, G. (2011). Hodgson’s Redstart Phoenicurus hodgsoni on Po Toi Island. The first Hong Kong record. Hong Kong Bird Report 2007-08: 279-287.
