TEMMINCK’S STINT Calidris temminckii 青腳濱鷸
Category I. Uncommon passage migrant and winter visitor. Numbers in decline.
IDENTIFICATION
Dec. 2004, John and Jemi Holmes. Adult, non-breeding plumage.
13-15 cm. Rather plain brown stint, especially across the chest, with a distinctive slow and creeping foraging action, fine-tipped slightly decurved bill, pale legs and neat whitish orbital ring. When flushed it gives a distinctive trilling call and the white outer tail feathers are usually prominent.
In non-breeding plumage has plain dull brown upperparts and chest, and white underparts.
Apr. 2008, Allen Chan. Adult acquiring breeding plumage.
In adult breeding plumage acquires a variable number of dark-centred rufous-edged feathers.
Oct. 2022, Paul Leader. Juvenile moulting to first-winter.
Juveniles have pale fringes to the upperpart feathers with a dark subterminal fringe on scapulars and wing coverts. On this first-winter bird the worn and faded juvenile wing coverts are visible.
VOCALISATIONS
A distinctive high-pitched trilling is given in flight.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Occurs in freshwater or brackish wetland habitat such as fish ponds, channelised watercourses, managed freshwater wetlands and areas of wet agriculture across northern areas of the New Territories from Nim Wan in the west to Sha Tau Kok in the east. Birds will gather to feed and roost on ponds that are in the process of being drained down; otherwise, they are scattered around the edges of full ponds. It also occurs in those areas of the intertidal mudflat where freshwater influence is more pervasive, with some of the highest counts coming from this habitat, including the highest this century of 59 on 1 January 2012.
The only other records are from the former airport at Kai Tak, where 24 were noted on 5 May 1976 and three were present on 3 April 1979, and the present airport at Chek Lap Kok where one was noted on 24 October 1996.
OCCURRENCE
Temminck’s Stint is generally recorded in Hong Kong from mid-September to the end of April, with highest numbers midwinter (Figure 1). Extreme dates are 6 August 2002 and 27 May 2005. Peak seasonal counts in autumn, winter and spring have declined since the 1990s despite increased observer activity.
Based on non-systematic record submission (Figure 1) the first autumn arrivals are usually noted in the second half of September, while main passage occurs from the second week of October to the third week of November. There is then a decline during the last week of November and early December. In contrast, based on systematic monthly waterbird counts in the Deep Bay area (Figure 2), there is a gradual increase in numbers from September to a peak in January.
The highest counts on record are 152 at Lin Barn Tsuen on 18 October 1997 and 130 at Mai Po on 20 October 1991; in contrast, the highest autumn count this century is significantly lower at 46 on 1 November 2017. The highest winter counts are 118 on 14 January 1979 and 100 on 25 February 1984. In contrast, the highest winter count this century is 59 on 1 January 2012 at Mai Po Boardwalk. The five-year mean of peak winter counts from 1978/79 to 2001/02 was generally 50 or more, while since then it has not exceeded 35.
Non-systematic counts indicate that numbers are broadly similar from mid-January to the first week of April, with departure complete by the end of April (Figure 1); in contrast monthly Deep Bay area counts indicate a gradual increase in numbers from a low in February to peak in April (Figure 2). The highest spring counts are 80 on 8 April 1987 and 12 April 1993, while the highest since 1999 is 31 on 16 April 2006. The decrease in seasonal peak counts across the winter period as a whole is reflected in Figure 1. There are no summer records.
Vaughan and Jones (1913) recorded Temminck’s Stint on passage and occasionally in winter, though the first records referable with certainty to HK are those of Dove and Goodhart (1955) who recorded up to six on autumn passage until November.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Unobtrusively forages in muddy areas of fish ponds and intertidal mudflats. When flushed often gives its distinctive high-pitched trilling call and may, if alarmed, adopt an erratic and steeply-rising flight path.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds across most of the Palearctic north of the Arctic Circle from Finland to Chukotka; winters patchily in southern Europe, but primarily in central Africa, parts of the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Indochina to southern Japan and Borneo (Van Gils et al. 2020). In China a migrant through much of the country away from the high plateau areas and a winter visitor to the south coast, including Hainan and Taiwan (Liu and Chen 2020).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend unknown.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Dove, R. S. and H. J. Goodhart (1955). Field observations from the Colony of Hong Kong. Ibis 97: 311-340.
Liu, Y. and Y. H. Chen (eds) (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Macfarlane, A. M. and A. D. Macdonald, revised by Caunter, J. R. L. and A. M. Macfarlane (1966). An Annotated Check-list of the Birds of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Hong Kong.
Vaughan, R. E. and K. H. Jones (1913). The birds of Hong Kong, Macao and the West River or Si Kiang in South-East China, with special reference to their nidification and seasonal movements. Ibis 1913: 17-76, 163-201, 351-384.
Van Gils, J., P. Wiersma, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Temminck's Stint (Calidris temminckii), 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.temsti.01
