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| male Ryukyu Minivet Pericrocotus tegimae (Showing its 'mini-vest' well) |
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| male Ryukyu Minivet Pericrocotus tegimae |
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| female Ryukyu Minivet Pericrocotus tegimae |
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| female Ryukyu Minivet Pericrocotus tegimae |
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| Ryukyu winds hitting Seogwipo... |
Seogwipo was so lively yesterday that I dragged Mike Balfour, my Jeju birding buddy of old, all the way back down from the north-side today so he could try for a Grey Thrush in my second-favourite park. We did not find any, so instead had to settle for a pair of confiding Ryukyu Minivets that called to one another and fed in low trees for 30 minutes before flying off. WHAA?! This is the second record of the species in Korea (and the first record of a female), after I found one on Gageo Island in May of 2013. The species, once an Ashy Minivet subspecies, has been colonizing northward in Japan lately. Hopefully today’s sighting means they’re also coming this way. Is it possible they will colonize Korea like Light-vented Bulbuls have over the past 20 years, or were these just more rare overshoots? I’m betting they visit coastal Korea more frequently than twice in seven years, and are perhaps overlooked.
All in all, I think it’s a bit creepy that I found Ryukyu Minivets again. A couple of years ago I actually wrote a story about a birder who gets cursed by a Jeju shaman for some reason and starts seeing Ryukyu Minivets all over the world. Other birders accuse him of stringing, so he hides out in the Arctic. The minivets torment him in great whirling, shreeping flocks, and the guy eventually walks into a swamp because of it. It was such an awesome story that it never got published. Anyway, weiiiiird.
The pair's contact calls I recorded that day can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/mat-poll/minivet-april-13
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