Green-backed Flycatcher Ficedula elisae 綠背姬鶲
Category I. Very rare migrant, mainly in autumn.
IDENTIFICATION
Dec. 2017, James Eaton, Malaysia. Adult male.
13–13.5 cm. A medium-sized flycatcher. The adult male has a short yellow supercilium over the lores and yellow orbital ring, underparts and rump. The upperparts are olive-green, while the tail is black. There is a broad white patch on the inner wing coverts.
Oct. 2011, Koel Ko.
Based on Bakewell et al. (2021), birds in female or sub-adult plumage can be identified by the following: deeply-based blue-grey bill, obvious yellowish orbital ring set against an otherwise plain olive head, yellowish underparts (often bright) with indistinct breast mottling, olive-green mantle, greenish-olive rump, olive-brown uppertail coverts and tail (the latter having a slightly rufous base) and short undertail coverts that extend approximately halfway down the tail.
VOCALISATIONS
The commonly heard call from autumn migrants is a moderately high-pitched downslurred ‘weet’ often interspersed with a short rattle, the latter deeper in pitch and slower in pace than that of Yellow-rumped Flycatcher.
OCCURRENCE
Records are listed below. Those in spring involved adult males, those in autumn were first-winter birds.
1996: at Tai Po Kau on 11 April (Kemp and Melgar 1998).
1997: at Ho Chung on 29 March.
2011: at Po Shan Road on 21 October.
2015: on Po Toi on 10 November.
2018: at Ho Man Tin on 22 October.
2019: at Ho Man Tin on 4 October.
SYSTEMATICS & RANGE
Monotypic. Previously regarded as a race of Narcissus Flycatcher.
Green-backed Flycatcher is a restricted-range species that breeds in Shanxi, Hebei and Beijing in eastern China, and winters in southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia. Passage birds are recorded in the eastern half of the country (Liu and Chen 2021).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.
Bakewell, D. N., P. D. Round, A. Jearwattanakanok, J. A. Eaton, J. G. Park and Y. Shigeta (2021). Identification of the Narcissus Flycatcher – Yellow-rumped Flycatcher complex in subadult and female plumages. BirdingASIA 36 (2021): 22-34.
del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, G. M. Kirwan, and D. A. Christie (2020). Green-backed Flycatcher (Ficedula elisae), 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.narfly1.01
Kemp, R. J. L. and C. W. Melgar (1998). Green-backed Flycatcher at Tai Po Kau: the first record for Hong Kong. Hong Kong Bird Report 1996: 132-134.
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.
