Zoothera dauma Shek Kong, Hong Kong, 28th Dec. 2009I'm not being more pretentious than usual, but I can't remember what we call this in English.
I first saw this in Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1986 and it was "White's Thrush" , after Gilbert White, Vicar of Selborne and pioneer observer of nature in the late 18th century.
Later, we were entreated to refer to this as "Scaly Thrush" - a passable descriptive name, after all - but recently the himalayan and non-himalayan migratory populations have been proposed as a "split".
Our Zoothera daumas are winter visitors, so they must be the migratory ones like the one that White recorded near Selborne, right ? So it's "White's Thrush" again, I think. Himalayan "Scalys" are altitudinal migrants and won't get this far.
Anyway, on New Year's Day, we've got a whole new decade to get to the bottom of this.
Watch this space.
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
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