Chinese Bush Warbler

There hasn’t been time for longer trips during the last weeks. We are busy packing for our next adventure in Khovd as well as doing Mongolian classes. Luckily there are plenty of places that can be reached within an hour or so from home. So birding can be done.

Abu has come back to Mongolia, so we headed out to Terelj just north of UB a few days ago. Our targets were Grey Nightjar, Pygmy Owl and Chinese Bush Warbler.

It was already dawning as we arrived, so we missed both Grey Nightjar and Pygmy Owl. But we came across some good birds including a male Red-flanked Bluetail, Siberian Rubythroat, Two-barred Warbler, several Oriental and Common Cuckoos etc.

We then checked for the Chinese Bush Warblers just next to the Terelj Road. The warbler also known as Chinese Grashopper Warbler is a small locustella, just slightly bigger than a Lanceolated. It breeds in a narrow belt from southern Chine up to eastern Mongolia and west along the Mongolian-Russian border according to HBW.

We walked through a valley filled with bushes, but didn’t encounter any CBWs, and after a while I decided to walk back towards the car. I tried play-back every now and then and suddenly I got a reply. Soon after three different birds were heard.

As is typical of most locustellas they are not exactly shy but very hard to observe. The CBWs prefer to run through the grass rather than flying, and they change position quite frequently. I caught a few glimpses every now and then – but the birds were also covered in dense vegetation.

Sometimes they came as close as a meter when I did a series of play-back. Thanks to manual focus I got a few pictures of eyes and bill.

At one point a bird was foraging along a small ditch and it had to cross an open area of about one meter. So I sad down and waited. After about 10 minutes it finally came out in the open for 3 seconds and I managed to get a few usable pictures.

CBW is very similar to Baikal or Siberian Bush Warbler, but the song of CBW is lower pitched and has a different rhythm. Thus the Terelj birds can be safely identified as CBWs.

I visited the UB Ponds yesterday. A Corsac posed just after sunrise – a rather common species around UB.

A plesent surprise were a least two different singing males Yellow-breasted Buntings. I didn’t observe any females, but they are hopefully incubating now. Nice to have this globally endangered species breeding just 30 minutes from home.