brendank

11 January 2013

Today, there was a Golden-spectacled Warbler probably a Bianchi's Warbler seen on Hatton Road (walking the peak to Lung Fu Shan) at lamppost 46105.

I was with visitors today and wasn't specifically birdwatching so I didn't have a telephoto lens but had a good look in binoculars. One of my visitors took this photo of it with a 135mm lens.

There was extensive white on the two outer rectrices extending almost the entire length of the tail, eye ring, yellow faint and complete, underparts dull yellow, median and central crown stripe extending just beyond eye, no wingbar.

bianchi.JPG (90.31 KB)

11/01/2013 18:57

kmike

I love this picture Brendan!

How many people reading this thread would have the faintest idea of the identity of this bird if it were a pin-sharp close-up?  

This time I can say "I haven't a clue what it is"  without the faintest shadow of guilt or despair. They do my head in!


Cheers
Mike K

lpaul

Brendan,

You don't mention the extent of grey on the head which is one of the important features when identifying Gold Specs.

I have a table which lists all the the key features of the Gold Specs and White Specs in HK which if anyone would like a copy send me a PM.  It won't display properly here (does anyone know to import a word doc table into a message??) otherwise I would upload it here.

brendank

Paul, there was very little grey below the lateral crown stripe so I think that would rule out Grey-crowned Warbler.  However, there seems to be a lot of variation on this feature on Bianchi's Warbler. Compare

http://orientalbirdimages.org/se ... Family_ID=&p=15

http://orientalbirdimages.org/se ... Family_ID=&p=10

Robson in Birds of South East Asia shows the white on the rectrices on Alstrom's only extending about 1/3 of way to the base whereas in Bianchi's Warbler it seems to extend about 3/4 of the way to the base. This bird definitely matched Bianchi's in that respect but I am not sure if his drawings are completely accurate.

I looked for about 1.5 hours early this morning and did not see it.

Thanks, Mike for enjoying the photo!