Komatsu Yasuhiko

Sakhalin Leaf Warbler at Shanghai’s Century Park

by Craig Brelsford
Founder, shanghaibirding.com

​Century Park, Pudong, Thurs. 5 Oct., Komatsu Yasuhiko and Craig Brelsford, 39 species. Hiko and I blew past our target of 35 species and added three species to the shanghaibirding.com Century Park all-time bird list.

The new entries on the shanghaibirding.com list are Sakhalin Leaf Warbler, Dusky Warbler, and White-throated Rock Thrush. The new entries on the eBird list are those three plus Japanese Paradise Flycatcher and Taiga Flycatcher.

White-throated Rock Thrush
White-throated Rock Thrush, a new record for Pudong’s Century Park. (Komatsu Yasuhiko)

See our day list here: https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39560484

Century Park is getting better,” Hiko said. My young friend is right. Century Park is an island of stability amid the sea of change (mainly degradation) that is the natural environment of Shanghai. Ten years ago this month, when Hiko was a tyke of 6, I made my first visit to urban Shanghai’s best birding area. Little has changed. The biggest difference between October 2007 and October 2017 is, the trees are taller. The wooded areas at Century have an ever-stronger woodsy feel.

Notes:

Century yielded yet another regional record of Sakhalin Leaf Warbler. Evidence is growing that in the Shanghai area this passage migrant has been neglected and is more common than previously thought. I recently wrote a series of posts, the latest being this one, on distinguishing Sakhalin Leaf Warbler from its sister species Pale-legged Leaf Warbler.

Here is the recording I made of the calling Sakhalin on Thurs. 5 Oct. Apart from a DNA assay, call as well as song is the only reliable way to separate Sakhalin Leaf Warbler from Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. At 4.9 kHz, the tink recorded below is a full kilohertz deeper than the call of Pale-legged Leaf Warbler.

Sakhalin Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus borealoides, Century Park (31.215410, 121.547819), Shanghai, 5 Oct., by Craig Brelsford (0:20; 3.9 MB)

Sakhalin Leaf Warbler

Eurasian Woodcock whizzed overhead on its way to Bird Island (31.219660, 121.550575). The woodcock was going to the one best place for it in the urban park. Bird Island, Century’s sanctuary-within-a-sanctuary, is a bird-friendly, cat-free parcel of woodland cut off from the rest of the park by a moat.

Great Spotted Woodpecker used to be found mainly on Bird Island. On Thursday we found 2 in other sectors of the park. With the steadily improving woodland in the park, expect Great Spotted Woodpecker to be seen in more and more areas. Century Park is one of the few areas in urban Shanghai where woodpeckers are commonly found.

Arctic Warbler 9 calling. No evidence Thursday of Kamchatka Leaf Warbler.

Rufous-tailed Robin in undergrowth, ID’d quickly and accurately by Hiko.

Rufous-tailed Robin
Rufous-tailed Robin made a rare foray out of the undergrowth to look at us. (Komatsu Yasuhiko)

Red-flanked Bluetail, Grey-backed Thrush: common winter visitors to Shanghai and seasonal firsts for Hiko and me.

White’s Thrush: a healthy 11 taking advantage of the high-quality woodland in the park.

The shanghaibirding.com Century Park all-time list was started in 2006 by former Shanghai resident and shanghaibirding.com contributor Daniel Bengtsson. I have managed the list since 2015. The list is searchable in English, Latin, and Chinese. As an index of the birds of urban Shanghai, the list is unmatched. Again, the link: https://www.shanghaibirding.com/sites/urban-shanghai/century-bird-records/

Featured image: Komatsu Yasuhiko shows off his image of adult-male Mugimaki Flycatcher at Century Park, Shanghai, 5 Oct. (Craig Brelsford)
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Craig Brelsford

Craig Brelsford is the founder of shanghaibirding.com. Brelsford lived in Shanghai from 2007 to 2018. Now back home in Florida, Brelsford maintains close ties to the Shanghai birding community and continues his enthusiastic development of this website. When Brelsford departed China, he was the top-ranked eBirder in that country, having noted more than 930 species. Brelsford was also the top-ranked eBirder in Shanghai, with more than 320 species. Brelsford’s photos of birds have won various awards and been published in books and periodicals and on websites all over the world. Brelsford’s Photographic Field Guide to the Birds of China, published in its entirety on this website, is the most Shanghai-centric field guide ever written. Brelsford is a graduate of the University of Florida and earned a master's in business administration at the University of Liege, Belgium.

2 thoughts on “Sakhalin Leaf Warbler at Shanghai’s Century Park”

  1. Some nice birds for you in Century Park!

    I have had one or two Sakhalins on my patch so far this autumn, and a couple of days back got my first cast-iron Kamchatka in autumn, based on call and response to tape. See here, which includes links to a couple of useful pages on Shanghai Birding.

    Like your spring Kamchatka, I was struck by the fact that when I heard it calling I didn’t think it was an “odd Arctic Warbler”; indeed, my thought was, “What the heck is that?!”

    I think we are getting there on the field ID of these cryptic, recently split Phyllocs, even when they are not singing!

    Warmest regards from Bangkok,

    Dave

  2. Absolutely, Dave Gandy! And great to hear from you.

    The research is out there. All we need to do is apply it.

    Birders fall into habits. They often get into the habit either of attempting IDs on the wrong criteria (plumage and bare parts, for example, in the case of Pale-Sak and Arctic-Kamchatka) or of throwing up their hands and giving up.

    Neither mistake is necessary anymore in the case of Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and Sakhalin Leaf Warbler. New research is out there, and it is saying call is diagnosable. All that is left is for us birders to use that new knowledge.

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