When the male PRZEWALSKI’S REDSTART turned up at Lingshan last winter, it was only the third occurrence in Beijing and the first for 20 years… Given the lack of observer coverage in winter, we speculated whether it might be a more regular visitor than the records suggested… and this speculation gained credibility when a female was found nearby soon after. The only way we would know the true status of this star bird was to monitor the site over the following winters to see whether they returned…
So far this November I have already made three visits to the site and, despite seeing plenty of the other high-altitude loving redstart – Guldenstadt’s – I have not seen any Przewalski’s. Was it a late migrant? Or was the occurrence of the pair last winter really a one-off? I was beginning to wonder….
Fast forward to late on Thursday evening when I received a message from Breght Vandenberghe, a Belgian birder, to say that he had just visited Lingshan and seen a male PRZEWALSKI’S! My heart leapt.. and a voice inside my head whispered:
“It’s Back!!!”
Here is a photo from last year as a reminder of just how stunning is this spectacular species. Big congratulations to Breght for finding the Przewalski’s and huge thanks for passing on the news.
Male PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART at Lingshan, Sunday 23 February 2014.
On Saturday I visited Lingshan again (it’s become my favourite winter birding site!) with Wu Lan. On arrival, we were of course keen to see whether the male PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲) was still on site. We were greeted by a family who told us that it had moved on.. it had apparently been seen on Tuesday but a photographer had visited the site every day from Wednesday to Friday without success….
We decided (of course) to have a look anyway. But after half an hour of staring at the sea buckthorn bushes in its favoured gully, we decided to move up to the peak and check for ASIAN ROSY FINCHES… (粉红腹岭雀). We drove up, enjoying a large group of PALLAS’S ROSEFINCHES (北朱雀) on the way (at least 50 were present) but, again, the top was birdless… no sign of any Rosy Finches…
We decided to walk down the old road, an open south-facing valley, scattered with sea buckthorn bushes. We soon spotted our first GULDENSTADT’S REDSTARTS (红腹红尾鸲) and encountered the usual RED-THROATED THRUSHES (赤颈鸫) competing for the still significant stock of sea buckthorn berries. We thought to ourselves that, if the GULDENSTADT’S REDSTARTS were still here, there must be a good chance that the PRZEVALSKI’S was still around, too..
As we made it to the bottom of the valley we stumbled across a stunning male CHINESE BEAUTIFUL ROSEFINCH (红眉朱雀) and it showed spectacularly well for several minutes, allowing prolonged views through the telescope to examine its wonderful pink plumage.
We hit the new road at the bottom of the valley and instead of walking back up along the new road (the usual routine), for some reason we decided to walk back up the valley to the car. Now with the sun behind us, we followed the shrub-lined dyke as we headed north. We soon encountered a female redstart and, with white-edged tertials and secondaries, this bird was not the expected female GULDENSTADT’S…. We stood still and it gradually showed itself. I knew we had something good… I suspected it was a female PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART and I took some photos as it fed amongst some birch scrub.
First winter female PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲), Lingshan, 8 March 2014
Female PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲), Lingshan, 8 March 2014Female PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲), Lingshan, 8 March 2014. The 2nd record of PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART in Beijing this winter, the fourth ever and, we think, the first ever female.
It was cool to watch this bird catching insects and it was interesting to see that it was smaller and daintier than the more powerful female GULDENSTADT’S. I knew I had photos that would make this bird identifiable and so, after a few minutes, we moved on, now more confident that the male (which Wu Lan had yet to see) was probably still around.
We drove back to the site of the male bird but, again, its favoured sea buckthorn bush was empty… I decided to take a walk up the gully and around some scrub to check out the wider area.. and no sooner had I walked 5 metres, there it was – the male PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART.. ! I gestured to Wu Lan and she hurried over. We enjoyed splendid views and we immediately called the Wang family (who had driven up to the top to look for the ASIAN ROSY FINCHES)…
A few minutes later the Wangs arrived and we enjoyed superb views as the redstart posed on prominent perches as it caught the first insects of the spring… high-fives all round!
Male PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲), Lingshan, 8 March 2014.The Wang family, shortly after connecting with the male PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART.. smiles all round!
On my return to Beijing I immediately sent the photos of the female redstart to Paul Holt (currently in Yunnan), who has experience of female PRZEVALSKI’S and he quickly confirmed what we suspected – it was indeed a female PRZEVALSKI’S (thanks Paul!). Amazingly, the second record of this species in Beijing this winter, the fourth ever and, we think, the first ever female. Lingshan continues to surprise…. and if that wasn’t enough, we also heard (distantly) BROWN EARED PHEASANT (褐马鸡)… another very tough bird to see (or hear) in the capital.
The PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲) is still at Lingshan and has been successfully ‘twitched’ by a few Chinese birders this week. I have just received the photos below from ZHANG Yong, reproduced here with his kind permission. Wow!
PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART, Lingshan, 19 February 2014. What a stunner!PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART, Lingshan, 19 February 2014. Must be a candidate for the most beautiful Phoenicurus species?PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART, Lingshan. The sea buckthorn berries are a big attraction for this bird.
ZHANG Yong also saw more than 300 ASIAN ROSY FINCHES (粉红腹岭雀) at close quarters…
Some of the 300+ ASIAN ROSY FINCHES currently at Lingshan.
UPDATE: here is a short video of the redstart taken on Sunday 23 February.
And a couple more pictures taken at the weekend. On several occasions it sang!
PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART at Lingshan, Sunday 23 February 2014.Early on Sunday Lingshan was enveloped in freezing fog, resulting in some beautifully frosted backdrops to this special bird.
Saturday started out badly. I had arranged to take visiting British birder, Alastair Henderson, and Li Xiaomai to Lingshan to look for GULDENSTADT’S REDSTARTS (红腹红尾鸲) and ASIAN ROSY FINCHES (粉红腹岭雀). As I left my apartment at 0550, the smog was awful (registering over 400 on the Air Quality Index; to put this into perspective, a reading below 25 is considered healthy by the World Health Organisation – see footnote below for a rough guide). I knew that the air would be better in the mountains but, nevertheless, I wondered whether it would be a good day to be outside at all….
I shouldn’t have worried. As we reached the base of Lingshan, the air was certainly clearer than in the city and, as we ascended the access road, it cleared further until we could see blue sky, the sun (hallelujah!) and the peak of Lingshan to the west. It was a glorious day and, even in -9 temperatures, with very little wind it didn’t feel too cold.
As usual on trips to Lingshan, my first stop was a small gully a few hundred metres from the plateau of the road. This small ‘valley’ holds a few sea buckthorn bushes and was the place I first found GULDENSTADT’S REDSTARTS (红腹红尾鸲) last winter. It usually also plays host to many other species including thrushes, tits, accentors, buntings and rosefinches.
Almost immediately a bird flashed across the road and into a sea buckthorn bush in the gully. I called out “redstart” and, with my binoculars trained on it as it began to devour some of the yellowy-orange berries, I could see it was not the expected GULDENSTADT’S (红腹红尾鸲) but instead it was a stonking male PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲, also known as “Alashan Redstart)!! I quickly extended the legs on my tripod and trained my telescope onto the bird, and it showed magnificently, allowing us to see its beautiful mix of orange, grey, black and white plumage. Wow!
PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲), Lingshan, Beijing, 15 February 2014. Likely to be a first-winter male due to browner and more worn remiges when compared with the tertials.PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲), Lingshan, 15 February 2014. As one Twitter follower described its plumage is “like a redstart pretending to be a Chaffinch”.. I can see what he means…PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲), Lingshan, 15 February 2014.Alastair and Li Xiaomai just after watching the Przevalski’s Redstart at Lingshan.
After grabbing a few record photos with my camera, I sent a message via the Birding Beijing WeChat group to put out the news. Within 10 minutes, a minibus full of Beijing Birdwatching Society members arrived…! I knew the WeChat group was an efficient way of spreading news but that was ridiculous…. Beijing city is over 2 hours away!
The BBWS gang had, of course, coincidentally pre-arranged a trip there. On the way up they saw us at the gully and stopped to say “hi”. When I told them what we were watching, their jaws dropped!
Unfortunately, the redstart had disappeared as we chatted and, after explaining where the bird had been, Alastair, Xiaomai and I decided to go further up the mountain to look for the ASIAN ROSY FINCHES (粉红腹岭雀) while the group waited for the PRZEVALSKI’S (贺兰山红尾鸲) to reappear.
We drove up the few hundred metres to the top and scanned the slopes where the finches had been last week. But to no avail. Not even an ALPINE ACCENTOR (领岩鹨).
We decided to spend some more quality time with the PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲) and, as we descended, we passed the BBWS gang coming up.. they had connected splendidly with the redstart and several of the group delighted in showing me their fantastic photos which eclipsed mine by some margin! They carried on to look for the rosy finches as we descended.
We were preparing our lunch (of pot noodles!) at the PRZEVALSKI’S site when my phone rang. It was Zhang Shen, one of the BBWS guys. I could hear camera shutters in the background as he told me that they had found a flock of “several hundred” ASIAN ROSY FINCHES (粉红腹岭雀)… wow!! Balancing our pot noodles – now full of boiling hot water – we drove the few hundred metres to the top of the mountain to join the others. And sure enough, there was a huge flock of ASIAN ROSY FINCHES (粉红腹岭雀) wheeling around the peaks. Unfortunately they were mobile and hardly settled for more than a few seconds at a time. But they were definitely ASIAN ROSY FINCHES (粉红腹岭雀)! Thanks guys!!
After seeing the flock several times in flight but without seeing these special mountain finches on the ground, we reluctantly left to spend a little more time with the PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲) before heading back to Beijing. As we watched the redstart at close quarters, it even began to sing – a sort of quiet subsong that reminded me a little of a EURASIAN SKYLARK (云雀)… what an awesome bird. And occasionally it interacted with one or two of the GULDENSTADT’S REDSTARTS (红腹红尾鸲), with the GULDENSTADT’s clearly dominant and chasing the PRZEVALSKI’S off the berries a few times while we were there.
A male GULDENSTADT’S REDSTART (红腹红尾鸲) chasing away the PRZEVALSKI’S REDSTART (贺兰山红尾鸲), Lingshan, 15 February 2014.
I knew the PRZEVALSKI’S (贺兰山红尾鸲) was an excellent record. It’s a China endemic that breeds in Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia Provinces and is very rare in the east. I had a vague feeling that there had been just one previous record from the capital – a specimen collected more than 80 years ago. Some initial research has revealed the following:
One was recorded at nearby Xiaolongmen in a winter survey 1992-1994, date unspecified (per Li Ming – reference: Sun X, Wang l, “Ecological analysis and classification of forest bird communities at XiaoLongMen, Beijing”, Chinese journal of ecology, 2001, 20(5):25-31 ). However, the specimen from 20 December 1919, referred to in “The Birds of Hopei” (Shaw, 1936) was taken by Rev Wilder from the border between neighbouring Hebei Province and Shanxi Province, meaning that it is not a Beijing record. Shaw also states that Rev.Wilder observed one “in the mission of his compound of Tsung-hsien”. “A Synopsis of the Avifauna of China” (Cheng Tso-hsin, 1987) describes Przevalski’s Redstart as “Accidentally in Tongxian of Beijing Municipality”. Tongxian (which may be an alternative spelling of “Tsung-hsien”) is an area in the south-east part of Beijing Municipality. It is not mountainous and seems a strange place for one to turn up! More research needed..! The Lingshan bird is therefore possibly the third record for Beijing and the first for at least 20 years.
Many thanks to Alastair, Xiaomai and to the BBWS gang for their company on the day – and in particular, to Zhang Shen for alerting us to the ASIAN ROSY FINCHES (粉红腹岭雀)… It was great to see so many birders out and about in Beijing!
Footonote: The Air Quality Index (AQI) in Beijing and what the AQI “score” means. Yesterday the AQI was over 400…! It should be noted, though, that the AQI will vary greatly according to location and, in the mountains to the west of Beijing, the AQI will very likely be significantly better than the city.
AQI
Air Pollution
Level
Health Implications
0–50
Excellent
No health implications.
51–100
Good
Few hypersensitive individuals should reduce outdoor exercise.
101–150
Lightly Polluted
Slight irritations may occur, individuals with breathing or heart problems should reduce outdoor exercise.
151–200
Moderately Polluted
Slight irritations may occur, individuals with breathing or heart problems should reduce outdoor exercise.
201–300
Heavily Polluted
Healthy people will be noticeably affected. People with breathing or heart problems will experience reduced endurance in activities. These individuals and elders should remain indoors and restrict activities.
300+
Severely Polluted
Healthy people will experience reduced endurance in activities. There may be strong irritations and symptoms and may trigger other illnesses. Elders and the sick should remain indoors and avoid exercise. Healthy individuals should avoid out door activities.
