The Search for Swinhoe’s Rail

Swinhoe’s Rail (Coturnicops exquisitus) must be one of east Asia’s least known birds.  Traditionally, the most reliable place to encounter it was in the wet grass around Poyang Lake in winter but sightings from there have become increasingly scarce.. and due to its secretive behaviour, it is encountered only very infrequently on migration, even in relatively well-watched areas such as Happy Island and Beidaihe in coastal China.

It was only two years ago that Wieland Heim, Tom Wulf and Alex Thomas (of the Amur Birding Project) first recorded the ‘song’ of this secretive bird at Muraviovka Park in southeastern Russia.  And in July 2017, armed with this new knowledge, Paul Holt was the first to discover singing birds in China at Wuerqihan in northern Inner Mongolia.

Wuerqihan is a wonderful place… it is very popular with bird photographers in winter when, despite the bitter temperatures (as low as -35 degrees Celsius), it’s possible to see very well species such as Great Grey, Hawk, Ural, Tengmalm’s, Eagle and Little Owls plus other photogenic birds such as Hazel Grouse, Black Grouse, Siberian Jay, Pine GrosbeakPallas’s Rosefinch and, if you are lucky, Black-billed Capercaillie, .  It is less well-known that summer is also pretty special.  In addition to the recently-discovered Swinhoe’s Rail, it is a brilliant site to see Pallas’s and Gray’s Grasshopper Warblers, Lanceolated Warbler, Band-bellied Crake, Pale-legged, Two-barred Greenish, Dusky and Radde’s Warblers, Eyebrowed Thrush, Oriental Cuckoo and many more species.  It is also just wonderful to spend time in pristine lush wet meadows, mixed deciduous forest and grassland that are all teeming with life.

2018-06-19 Inner Mongolian wetland, Wuerqihan
One of the wet clearings in the forest at Wuerqihan.
2018-06-16 silver birch forest, Wuerqihan, Inner Mongolia
The stunning birch forest at Wuerqihan is home to owls, warblers, thrushes and buntings.
2018-06-19 Clouds over Inner Mongolia meadow
The open wet grasslands of Wuerqihan are full of Pallas’s Grasshopper Warblers!

I had already made two short summer trips to Wuerqihan, in 2016 with Nick Green and in 2017 with Derrick Wilby and I was keen to return.  So, with Marie, we set aside a few days to fly to Hailar, rent a car and drive the 2.5 hours east to Wuerqihan.

We were keen just to enjoy the break and some good birding but of course we were also hoping to encounter the Swinhoe’s Rail.

Our first day would coincide with the last day of the visit by British birder, Jon Holmes, for whom I had arranged local guide Zhang Wu and his 4×4 to take him around.  And on day two we bumped into another Brit, Dave Woodford, accompanied by Chinese bird guide, Steven An.

The call of Swinhoe’s Rail is reasonably loud and carries for quite a distance… and during our first evening on site, we had no difficulty in hearing the Swinhoe’s Rails from the track, calling from the wet grass.  Being poorly prepared (no wellies or torch), we decided to call it a night, do a spot of shopping in the town the following day and return the next evening.

After each picking up a pair of wellies for CNY 40 (about GBP5) we arrived on site, with Steven and Dave, around 6pm, about 2.5 hours before dusk.  Already, one bird was calling intermittently and, before long, two or three began calling.  We donned our wellies and headed along the edge of the meadow, stopping regularly to listen to the birds as they began calling more frequently as dusk approached.   You can hear a bit about our first encounter here:

Suddenly, a dark shape flew up in front of Dave and dropped into the grass about 15m away.  It was tiny and dark with obvious white secondaries – Swinhoes’ Rail!  Almost immediately it began to call and, having my sound recording gear with me, I was fortunate to capture this seldom heard, and rarely recorded, sound.

We were stunned and stood still, just soaking up the moment.  The wonderful rich colours of the meadow at sunset, not a breath of wind and Swinhoe’s Rails calling amongst the Pallas’s Grasshopper Warblers, Common Rosefinches, Japanese Quails and Common Cuckoos.  Simply mesmerising.

2018-06-18 Meadow in Inner Mongolia
Swinhoe’s Rail habitat in Inner Mongolia.
2018-06-17 Swinhoe's Rail habitat
The grass was around 30cm high with c15cm of water.. Wellies definitely required.
2018-06-17 Swinhoe's Rail, Wuerqihan, Inner Mongolia (Steven An)
Swinhoe’s Rail in flight, Wuerqihan. Photo by Steven An.

That moment will stay with us for a very long time.   And as we made our way back to the vehicles, we were accompanied by a cacophony of birdsong with Common Cuckoos seemingly all around, Pallas’s Grasshopper Warblers reeling away and Japanese Quails uttering their squelchy call.  Magical.

The Chinese name for Swinhoe’s Rail is 花田鸡 (Huātián jī).  Literally translated it means “flower frog”, a fantastically descriptive and apt name.

Over the next few days, we enjoyed some pretty special encounters with some wonderful birds including a stunning Great Grey Owl in the evening light.

Pacific Swifts were common in the town, breeding in many of the buildings, particularly the older properties.

And the omnipresent Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler occasionally showed well, belying its reputation as an extreme skulker.

 

We recorded 98 species during our visit and had a fantastic time.  Wuerqihan is a brilliant birding destination and thoroughly recommended in summer or winter.  It is probably also extremely good in spring and autumn but, as far as I know, no birders have visited in that season.

2018-06-16 Zhang Wu scoping for Black-billed Capercaillie, Wuerqihan
Local guide, Zhang Wu, with his trusty 4×4.

Anyone wanting to visit should contact local guide, Zhang Wu, who can arrange pick-up and drop-off from Hailar airport, accommodation and food, and, with his unbreakable 4×4 and local knowledge, he will ensure any visiting birder gets to the right places and has a superb time.  Although he speaks no English, it’s possible to communicate the basics using a combination of sign language and the impressive translation APP on his smartphone, and you can guarantee he will work hard to try to connect you with any target species.  He can be contacted directly on +86 13614709187 and, for any non-Chinese speakers, I’d be happy to help make arrangements if required.

Big thanks to Marie, Jon, Dave, Steven and Zhang Wu for being great company during the trip.  And a big hat-tip to the Amur Bird Project team and Paul Holt for their discoveries in 2016 and 2017 which enabled us to connect with the enigmatic Swinhoe’s Rail.

 

 

PACIFIC SWIFTS breeding in Beijing!

During a 2-day visit to Lingshan in late June, we decided to explore a nearby valley along the Yongding River (Yongdinghe).  It’s a spectacularly pretty gorge with quality birds such as Chukar, Red-billed Chough, Koklass Pheasant and Golden Eagle, and was also the site of the BROWN ACCENTOR a couple of winters ago.

The Yongding Valley. One of Beijing's hidden treasures.
The Yongding Valley. One of Beijing’s hidden treasures.

BLUE ROCK THRUSHES (of the orange/chestnut-bellied philippensis race) were a nice surprise along with super views of Red-billed Chough, Crag Martins and a pair of Golden Eagles.  But the biggest surprise was catching sight of what I instinctively thought was a swift…  Unfortunately, as soon as I trained my binoculars on it, it disappeared behind a ridge and was gone.  For several minutes, I scanned in vain and I began to doubt myself…  had I really seen a swift?  Was it just a Crag Martin seen very poorly at a strange angle?  Then, as suddenly as it disappeared, it reappeared, this time in good light and, even better, in the company of 5 other swifts…  And, with gleaming white rumps, they were clearly all PACIFIC SWIFTS.

A record photo of one of the PACIFIC SWIFTS breeding in the mountains to the west of Beijing.
A record photo of one of the PACIFIC SWIFTS breeding in the mountains to the west of Beijing.

I hadn’t heard of PACIFIC SWIFTS breeding in Beijing.  I have seen them on passage in spring and autumn but never in mid-summer.  I watched them for several minutes and they occasionally engaged in ‘screaming’ and, several times, flew up to some ledges on a sheer cliff face…  it appeared as though they were breeding…

On return, I discussed the swifts with Paul Holt who told me that breeding has never been proved in Beijing before, although there have been several mid-summer reports from the mountains.  The big question is whether the Yongdinghe birds are of the usually more southerly distributed subspecies kanoi or the usually more northerly distributed pacificus.

It will take much better photos than the one above to determine that!

 

 

Salim Ali’s Swift?

I saw my first Pacific Swift in Copenhagen, Denmark, in June 2010 just a few weeks before moving to China.  Since then I have seen many more in north-east China – it is a common migrant through Beijing in spring and autumn.  Last year,  a thorough assessment of four Pacific Swift subspecies by Paul Leader (Leader, P J. 2011. Taxonomy of the Pacific Swift Apus pacificus Latham, 1802, complex. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 131: 81-93) found that they may deserve species status.  This is an extract from an article in Birdwatch magazine by David Callahan in June 2011:

“Four subspecies of Pacific Swift are generally recognised, and the species as it is known traditionally has a wide breeding distribution throughout the eastern Palearctic. It is a long distance migrant, wintering south to Indonesia and Australasia.

Leader (2011) measured and assessed the plumage of 146 specimens of Pacific Swift from four different museums across Eurasia, as befits a species with pan-Palearctic records. The four forms were found to differ in wing and tail measurements, as well as the size and shape of their distinctive white rump patch, white throat patch, pale underpart fringes and the colour of the underwing coverts.

The new prospective species are as follows:

Pacific Swift Apus pacificus: cleaner white throat patch, a slightly longer tail fork and tail length, and the broadest rump patch by a margin; breeds from Siberia through to Japan, winters from Indonesia south and east to Tasmania (incorporating the subspecies A p pacificus and A p kurodae – other subspecies were found to be invalid).

Sàlim Ali’s Swift A salimali: five to 10 mm longer tail but with similar wing length to A pacificus, throat patch forming a thin white strip half the width of the other three forms, thinnest at the bill end, and very little white to the underpart feathers; breeds at high altitude on the east Tibetan Plateau and west Sichuan, China, but its winter range is unknown.

Blyth’s Swift A leuconyx: the smallest of the four forms, with the rump patch consistently narrow, brown-tinged crown and nape contrasting with the glossy black mantle, broad white thoat patch with black shaft streaks extending onto the upper breast, hardly any pale underpart fringing; mid- to high-altitude breeder across the Himalayan part of the Indian subcontinent into Bhutan and Nepal.

Cook’s Swift A cooki: shallowest tail fork, first primary the longest (the other three have P2 as the longest), narrow white rump patch with dark, club-shaped shaft streaking, overall black upper- and underpart-coloration (brownish tinge in the other three), broad well-defined fringes to the underpart feathers, throat patch off-white with broad black shaft streaks, black contrasting underwing coverts, and green iridescence to upperparts with some white fringed scapulars; restricted range in limestone caves in northern south-east Asia, and a short distance migrant to then south.”

During my recent trip to Jiuzhaigou, I enjoyed watching a flock of “Fork-tailed” Swifts wheeling around the mountain tops at around 3,000m altitude.  A (poor quality) image of one of them is below.

Fork-tailed Swift, Jiuzhaigou, 27 June 2012. Is this a Salim Ali’s Swift?

Compare this image with a couple of Pacific Swifts taken at Laotieshan in May 2011:

Pacific Swift, Laotieshan, Liaoning Province, May 2011
Pacific Swift, Laotieshan, Liaoning Province, May 2011.

To my eyes at least the bird from Jiuzhaigou appears longer tailed and with a narrower white patch on the rump.  I don’t have access to the article by Paul Leader so I am not sure on precise range but I think there is a good chance this is a Salim Ali’s Swift.  Comments welcome!