Birdielog - 230307

Hmmm.
First, the roster.

Range - Richmond Town, Richmond Park
Time - 0815 - 0930 hours
March 23, 2007

"The Cold Reading"

Sighted for sure:

• Spotted Dove
• Eurasian Golden Oriole
• Rosy Starling (flock)
• Grey-headed Starling (flock) - these have not headed North yet :):)
• Purple-rumped Sunbird OR Small Sunbird (very probably both!!)
• Blyth's Reed Warbler ? (I suspect this could easily also be the Booted Warbler. There was a flock moving silently through a fig tree. Very difficult to tell...this could as easily be the Oriental White-Eye.)

Heard for sure but not sighted:

• Oriental Magpie-Robin
• Red-whiskered Bulbul
• Common Tailorbird

Hmmmm indeed. There were any number of sounds to which I could not attach culprits :) Nesting sites being so limited in a crowded city, these creatures need to make the best of what they get.

The Heard for sure but not sighted category are as good as actual sightings; they are not merely suspects. The calls are unmistakeable and cannot be confused with other birds.

The reed warblers are the most difficult to identify (me and a million other birdlovers will testify !!!) - because they can look so easily like other warblers and also because a lot many times, they are silent. The dull metallic "chit" or "chuck" is almost always associated with the "tdrrrr"... compounded by the fact that Booted Warblers resemble leaf warblers a lot.