Rufous-faced Warbler Abroscopus albogularis 棕臉鶲鶯
Category I. Rare winter visitor.
IDENTIFICATION
Dec. 2017, Michelle and Peter Wong.
8-9 cm. Tiny, large-headed with distinctive orange face and lores bordered above by blackish line and below by a white sub-moustachial and dense blackish throat streaks. Mantle bright olive green, edges to flight feathers lime green, rest of underparts white. Bill orange horn, legs greyish-pink.
VOCALISATIONS
The song consists of a moderately high-pitched trill.
The contact call is a quiet, short, high-pitched, generic ‘chip’ note.
The alarm call is short, sharp chatter, sometimes high-pitched.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Occurs in forested areas through much of the New Territories, as well as on HK Island, Po Toi and Cheung Chau.
OCCURRENCE
The first record on 1 February 1964 was not followed until 1993, when one was at Ho Chung from 10 January to 5 February, and then ten years later when singles (possibly the same bird) were at Tai Po Kau on 22 November 2003 and 4 January 2004, and two were at Ng Tung Chai. Five years later one was at Mui Tsz Lam on 22 November 2009, and another was at Shing Mun on 10 January 2012.
The next record occurred at Bride’s Pool from 23 November 2017 to 17 January 2018, and two other birds occurred that winter. The following winter saw one at Tai Po Kau on two dates in January and another in song at Tai Tong on 24 April, which is the latest on record by over 7 weeks. The earliest is of one on Po Toi on 10 November 2019.
Winter 2019/2020 saw a much wider spread of birds at Tai Po Kau, northeast New Territories, Sai Kung, Kap Lung, Tai Lam CP, Ho Man Tin and on HK Island; in addition, one was seen on Po Toi during 10-23 November 2019. The highest count was a loose flock of seven at Yan Yee Road catchwater, Sai Kung on 12 December 2019.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Insectivore that forages unobtrusively in mid to lower canopy of closed-canopy forest.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Occurs from the eastern Himalayas and northern Myanmar east to south China, and south to northern and eastern Indochina (Madge 2020). In China occurs from the Yangtze floodplain south to coastal provinces, though generally away from the coast, and Taiwan and Hainan (Liu and Chen 2021).
Three subspecies are recognised, of which A. a. fulvifacies breeds in southeast China, Taiwan and Indochina and is presumed to occur in HK. The nominate subspecies breeds from the east Himalayas to west Myanmar and southwest China, while A. a. hugonis breeds in north and east Myanmar and northwest Thailand.
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.
Liu, Y. and S. H. Chen (eds) (2021). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Madge, S. (2020). Rufous-faced Warbler (Abroscopus albogularis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rufwar1.0
