IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

A vocal species that utters an array of calls including chattering, inflected buzzing notes and purer short whistles.

The advertising call is a short or somewhat drawn out downslurred pair or short series of whistles.

Agitated or alarmed birds give a series of harsh notes, to which other birds often respond.

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT PREFERENCE

Chinese Babax has a highly restricted distribution on the higher slopes of Tai Mo Shan. It is usually found in small parties moving through dwarf bamboo or long grass and also using areas of shrubland, especially patches of shrubby vegetation or woodland in ravines surrounded by fire-maintained grassland. Until the year 2000 such habitat was extensive above about 600m elevation on Tai Mo Shan, but in the subsequent two decades the area of forest greatly expanded and advanced uphill as far as the summit. Though extensive areas of grassland remain, little of the transitional mosaic favoured by the babax remains along the road on the western slopes between the youth hostel and the summit where observers were accustomed to find this species in the 1980s and 1990s.

Larger areas of such habitat still do exist on the northeastern slopes of Tai Mo Shan and it was here that Chinese Babax was rediscovered in 2020. This area requires considerably more effort to reach (a steep uphill hike from Ng Tung Chai or over the summit of Tai Mo Shan from the closest vehicular access points) and hence it receives much less observer coverage. It is postulated, therefore, that as a consequence of habitat change the distribution shifted to or contracted to this area in the early 2000s. It should be noted, however, that an alternative explanation; that the HK population of Chinese Babax did indeed die out and that the birds seen since 2005 are derived from further ex-captive birds cannot be excluded.  

OCURRENCE

Chinese Babax was first found in HK on 19 July 1959 when a singing bird was observed at 900m elevation on Tai Mo Shan and breeding was proven there the following year. Subsequently, it was reported there in most years up to the end of the century, with a peak count of 14 birds near the summit on 25 August 1984 (Carey et al. 2001). Numbers seen since 1996 have been much lower with a peak annual count of no more than four and none reported in the five-year period 2006 – 10, leading Welch (2013) to state in 2011 that the population on Tai Mo Shan appeared to have died out.

However, there have been records of one to four individuals in most years from 2011 to 2022 (HKBWS data, eBird 2023). Although not possible to be certain, these records do lend credence to the proposition that a small population has persisted on Tai Mo Shan throughout the period under review.

As was stated by Carey et al. (2001), though initially placed in Category I of the HK list, natural colonisation by such a sedentary montane species is considered unlikely, hence its placement in Category IIA. However, whilst the natural range is considered not to reach the coast in Guangdong (e.g., Liu and Chen 2021), records in 2014-15 and 2019 at Wutongshan (eBird 2023), suggest that a population, albeit also perhaps derived from ex-captive birds, may now be present not far from HK.

As is discussed by Carey et al. (2001), in addition to the Tai Mo Shan population, there was a breeding record from Grassy Hill (which reaches 647m in altitude) in 1994, together with other observations of up to six individuals in that area in 1994 and 1995; however it has not been reported from there since. Similarly, Carey et al. (2001) documented a number of records from elsewhere, including Mount Butler on HK Island that were thought likely to refer to recently escaped or released birds. Such records have become very rare, with the only such record during the 1999 – 2020 period being of a single ex-captive bird seen at Tai Po Kau on 5 February 2009.

BREEDING

The first breeding record in HK concerned a pair with three recently fledged young at Tai Mo Shan on 24 July 1960; a pair with four juveniles were reported from there in 1994. The breeding observation from Grassy Hill in 1994 concerned an adult carrying food to a nest at 450m altitude on 21 May.

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET

Chinese Babax in HK is most often observed in small parties moving through shrubland or shrubland-grassland mosaic. Like other laughingthrushes, birds typically fly for only short distances, instead often progressing by bounding hops. Often rather skulking but calling and singing birds sometimes make use of rocks and dead branches where they can be conspicuous. Parties can be very vocal, but often suddenly become silent and disappear into cover.

Presumably an insectivore-frugivore like other laughingthrushes, but there do not appear to be any observations in HK.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS

The range extends from central Myanmar through southeast Tibet and Yunnan east and north to Sichuan, Shaanxi and Hubei and through the southern provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi and Guangdong east to Fujian (Liu and Chen 2021).

There are three races; the nominate race occurs from central Myanmar to central China, whilst P. l. bonvaloti and P. l. latouchei are endemic to southwest and southeast China respectively; birds in HK match the features of latouchei (Carey et al. 2001). 

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.