A brighter day than yesterday, but where to go?   I toyed with the idea of spending the morning in an area where Hainan Partridge has been seen in previous years.  But the idea of creeping around in the dark forest just wasn't appealing (limited photo-opportunities + numerous leeches).   Decided, instead, to walk the same mountain road as I had walked last year (in February), when I had managed to get some poor shots of a small flock of the Hainan-endemic Whitehead's Magpies (I use White-winged Magpie for xanthomelana, which can be found on the mainland). 

   Whitehead's Magpie was first described by Ogilvie-Grant in 1899.  He named it whiteheadia,  in honour of John Whitehead, the English explorer and naturalist, who had discovered the species.  Alas, after contracting malaria, the 38 year-old Whitehead died on Hainan, near Haikou, the island's capital, in June 1899.

   Interestingly, the IBC's verdict is: "Races well differentiated, possibly worthy of separate species".  But split or no split, it would be wonderful if Whitehead's contribution to Hainan ornithology were honoured by a name-change (by more than one person).  And, if you're in the mood, there's also Whitehead's Silver Pheasant that's endemic to Hainan.  

   This time, though, no Whitehead's or anyone else's magpies or pheasants, and not much else to be honest during the four-hour walk – other than a view of the head of a Red-headed Trogon, arguably the most impressive of the island's endemic subspecies.  Feast and famine birding is most certainly a feature of Jianfengling.  But just as you are thinking that the day is disappearing without much to show for it, the place throws out something that, all of a sudden, makes you stop in your tracks...

   ...On reaching Yulingu, and deciding to walk the circular river-edge walk, a kingfisher flew up and perched on the fence that skirts the track.  Blyth's! I screamed to myself, more in hope than anything else.  I chose to pick up the camera before the binoculars, which was perhaps not the best idea as I had some difficulty finding the bird in the viewfinder.  I eventually managed to get the bird in the frame and could see that it was a "common" kingfisher.  But rather than being disappointed, I was actually quite thrilled to get an okay shot of it (a bird this beautiful doesn't deserve to be called "common"). 

   But hold on a moment, are my eyes deceiving me, or does this bird have a peculiarly long and thin bill?  A previously-undescribed Hainan endemic perhaps?  Intriguingly, Ernst Hartert in his fascinating paper The Birds of Hainan, published in the 1910 Journal of Zoology (pp 189-254) remarks that, "All these ["common" Kingfisher] specimens have comparatively long bills".  Then again, he went on to say that he found them "equally long in many Indian examples".  Oh, well, dream on... 

   Talking of Hainan endemics (real ones this time), I managed to find another Red-headed Trogon (ssp hainanus), which sat out in the open, in good light, long enough for me to get a couple of shots of it. 

   I have to fly back to Beijing tomorrow, and I will only be able to bird for two hours before I have to leave for the airport.  So, let's hope for a bright start in more ways than one. 

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*Grey-chinned Minivet (photos of m&f), 2 

Hainan Barbet (photo), aka Black-browed Barbet, oorti faber, 8

*Fork-tailed Sunbird (photo), nominate endemic subspecies christinae, 2