Black-chinned Yuhina Yuhina nigrimenta 黑頦鳳鶥
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
Mar. 2021, Chun Fai LO.
Small, active forest passerine that is grey-brown above with paler grey hindneck, nape and cheeks, blackish lores extending under the bill and blackish centres to the grey-fringed crown feathers. The contrasting orange bill is distinctive.
VOCALISATIONS
The typical calls from a foraging group include a light chatter interspersed with very short and rather quiet ‘chik’ notes.
Also a richer, somewhat slower chatter.
And a louder double or single note call.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
The sole record occurred in evergreen broadleaf secondary forest at approximately 310 m asl at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG).
OCCURRENCE
2021: one at KFBG on 20 January (Yang 2025).
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
The bird seen in HK was foraging in a flock with White-bellied Erpornis and Swinhoe’s White-eyes.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Resident from the Himalayas east to south China and south into north Myanmar, north Thailand, north Indochina and southeast Vietnam (Collar and Robson 2020). In China resident in most of the country south of the Huang He (Yellow River) (Liu and Chen 2024).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.
Collar, N. and C. Robson (2020). Black-chinned Yuhina (Yuhina nigrimenta), 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.blcyuh1.01
Liu, Y. and S. H. Chen (2024). Birds of China. Princeton University Press, New Jersey and Oxford.
Yang, J. (in press). Black-chinned Yuhina Yuhina nigrimenta at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden. The first Hong Kong record. Hong Kong Bird Report 2021.
