Birding in Hainan Island, China

We were at Jianfengling, Hainan, from 17th to 24th October. It's quite a comfortable place for the casual birder, and they've got some good birds as well.

This is the place where, in 1963, Chinese ornithologists discovered that the Yellow-billed Nuthatch, Sitta solangae, occurred in China - it was known to occur in Vietnam already.



Robert Swinhoe shot a specimen of Orange-bellied Leafbird there in 1860. It had a blueish crown, hence the race lazulina



Hainan has many distinct races - some more distinct than others.....

Black-tailed Godwit lecture

We get two different kinds of Black-tailed Godwits here, according to the ever-readable "Avifauna of Hong Kong". The wintering population are an odd long thin-billed form, while the ones that pass through in spring are noticeably thicker-billed.


Winter



Spring




It is still a mystery where the thin-billed birds that winter here breed.

Black-capped Kingfisher

Most of our Black-capped Kingfishers winter here in HK, here's one I took on 6th October at Mai Po. I'd have posted it earlier here, but I forgot my code... yes,yes, I'm hopeless.