by Craig Brelsford
Founder, shanghaibirding.com
On 18 Dec., a quartet of teenage birders found an acrocephalid in the Magic Parking Lot at Cape Nanhui, the nubby promontory in Pudong and Shanghai’s best birding hotspot. The consensus is that the bird is either Paddyfield Warbler Acrocephalus agricola or Manchurian Reed Warbler A. tangorum.
In the images below, note the supercilium, which extends behind the eye; dark eye-line; bright white chin and throat; peach breast band and flanks; bill with black upper mandible and pink lower mandible; and peaked head. Those criteria most closely indicate Manchurian Reed Warbler and Paddyfield Warbler.
Paddyfield Warbler winters mainly in India and would be extralimital here; Manchurian Reed Warbler breeds in northeastern China, is listed as Vulnerable and is therefore scarce, and probably passes through Shanghai.
Congratulations to Andy Lee, Komatsu Yasuhiko, Larry Chen, and Archie Jiang for this great Shanghai record.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brazil, Mark. Birds of East Asia. Princeton University Press, 2009.
Kennerley, Peter & David Pearson. Reed and Bush Warblers. Christopher Helm, 2010.
