Red-breasted flycatcher in Shanghai

I’m not going to hold back the surprise till the end of the post. It’s obvious and as the title says, we had a “Red-breasted Flycatcher” on 22nd November. Not sure how many previous records were in Shanghai or East China but this one’s not the regular ” Joe” (Taiga Flycatcher- Ficedula albicilla).

Clue -1 – Bill

Bill is one of the strongest factor to separate the parva from albicilla. In the above and below pictures, the pale bill can be seen clearly and the base of the bill is pale with only the tip being black. Bummer is, the first winter albicilla also have pale base to the bill.

Clue 2 – Uppertail Coverts

Pale uppertailcoverts

Quoting from Mark Brazil “The uppertail coverts are paler than tail or concolorus with tail”. It’s very obvious from the above picture that the tail and uppertail are coverts are brown compared to the jetblack tail n blackish uppertail coverts.

Note the longer blackish uppertail coverts of the Taiga

Plenty of wagtails were feeding on dead bugs on the grass and on the road. Plenty of first winter Eastern Yellow Wagtails. I have already juiced my brain this time for the Red-breasted/Taiga confusion, so the yellow wagtails ssp challenge will be next season. A presumed 1st winter lugens White Wagtail, it’s about time they have showed up.

text book lugens

Not a tricky individual, it’s a very straight forward lugens with white coverts, flat and white forehead. Most of the literature say, the 1st winter birds will not have the complete white coverts, may be this one is an exception?

I was birding with good old friend Peter Ting from Phillipines. We went to the car park as early to see if the Siberian Rubythroat was still hanging around. We had no luck with the rubythroat but the 1st winter male Red-flanked Bluetail has clearly made the car park its territory and was defending his turf from two other females.

1st winter male

While Peter was indulged in the bluetail, i scouted around the car park. Shortly, the togs paraded in with their fancy 4×4, apparently there was a Short-eared Owl was in the car park a day earlier and hence the parade. We din’t see owl’s but i finally managed to pick up my “Siberian Thrush” for the season. When, i moved out of the undergrowth, there was a female “Verditer Flycatcher” staring right at me, just 5 metres away and both of us were caught offguard by the sudden appearance. I hauled Peter to the basketball court for this unusual timing of the Verditer.By the time, we came back, the flycatcher was still there but Peter missed it, we went back to the Car park to find an “Ashy Minivet” and a flock of “Eurasian Siskins“, another first for the season. The wet and slow morning has suddenly become so engaging.

Peter was focussed on a “Dusky Thrush” which was feeding on the leftover BBQ trash, we moved on to find the togs were photographing something and apparently it was the same Ashy Minivet and the Verditer Flycatcher moved over to the better habitat near the “Hollow Building” adjacent to the holiday inn express. Couple of Eye-browed Thrushed joined the feeding frenzy, then continued a very happy afternoon. This is also the place, we had the Red-breasted Flycatcher.

Female Verditer

Immature female?

Autumn Colors

Jumping Jack

For a glimpse

While i was getting acquainted with the F.parva (Red-breasted Flycatcher), suddenly there was a flash in the core of  my brain. I went back to the District-6 of my HDD and scuffled through the old archives and fished out couple of photos from 18th October which i put down as F.albicilla(Taiga Flycatcher). The bird on 18th October was indeed a Red-breasted Flycatcher, what a numbskull i was?

Pale uppertail coverts

warm throat

Pale bill

Species List:  (Total : 50)