first north american record

Chinese Pond Heron

A

YVANOMATII]I(AND JOHN EASTCOTT

RICHARDC. HOYER*AND SEAN D. SHITH*I' standingfeatures. His fear that the bird wouldfly off foreverabated whenit landedout of sightin tall beachrye grass. allmigration hadbarely begun inearnest whenbirders onSt. At the sametime, only a quarter of a mile away,Sean Smith, PaulIsland, in the AlaskanPribilofs, were presented with a dis- obliviousto Hoyer'sdiscovery, was at a NorthernFur Seal(Callorhi- coverythat shockedthem like no other in a summeralready filled nusursinus) observation blind, giving the regularmorning tour to a with greatbirds. On August4, 1996,Rich Hoyer, a localguide for the smallgroup of non-birdingvisitors. Realizing that additionalob- St. PaulTour, found himself with a morningfree to bird at leisure. serverswere needed to confirmthis bird, whatever it was,Hoyer ar- He firststopped to investigatethe marshyarea around Antone Lake rived at the sealblind breathlesswith excitementand makingwild on St.Paul's southwest side. Although the birding had been slow here gesticulations.Hoyer explainedto the highly amusedtour partici- in recentweeks, over the yearsthis spothad attracteda numberof pantsthat chasingsuch a bird wouldbe a worthwhileventure, and Pribilofrarities, especially shorebirds, including Mongolian Plover we all proceededto AntoneLake. (Charadriusmongolus), Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia), We trompedthrough the dense,thigh-deep growth down to the Wood Sandpiper(Tringa glareola), Gray-tailed Tattler (Heteroscelus Antone channel. It wasn'tlong before the heronflushed from itshid- brevipes),Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos), all four stints ing place.Its striking,completely white wings elicited oohs and aahs (Calidrissp.), and Ruff (Philomachuspugnax), to namea few.None fromthe guests. The bird circled around the group and, fighting fair- of theseprevious occurrences prepared him for the nextfew hours of ly briskwinds, again settled into tall grass.Luckily, the bird waslarge, birdingexcitement. colorful,and obviouslyout of place,keeping the interestof the non- Richwas most of theway through the best area of the marshand birders. We recalled that the outer Aleutians had records of some disappointedin the lackof birdswhen a medium-sizedbird sudden- Asianherons, but we hadn'tcommitted the detailsto memory.This ly flappedout from the borderof the sedgesonly a few metersahead wasclearly not a bitternor egret,so our guesswas one of the south- of him. His first instinctto raisehis binocularswas instantly met eastAsian herons, Chinese Pond-Heron being the onlyname coming with a stunningrealization that he was looking at a heron.Any heron to mind. In the meantime,we had franticallyradioed the othertour other than the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)is rare in Alaska, guidesto bring camerasand field guides.We stationedourselves and any is an incrediblefind out in the middleof the BeringSea. wherewe wouldbe ableto seethe heronagain when it flew,as it was Furthermore,he did not recognizethis species!Hoyer followed the impossibleto seeit in thethick grass. As the otherguides drew closer, bird asit slowlyflapped away, circling downwind. He triedto painta we askedthem to look in the fieldguides for a heronfitting our de- mentalpicture of the bird and recitedto himselfthe variousfield scription.They found one matchingpicture in A FieldGuide to the marks.The all-whitewings and red headand neckwere the out- Birdsof Japan:we indeedhad in front of us a ChinesePond-Heron '160 N. PantanoRd., #1011, Tucson,AZ 85710 (A rdeolabacchus)! tSt. PaulIsland Tour, 1500 West 33rd Avenue, Suite 220, Anchorage, Alaska 99503 When everyonefinally had assembled,we convergedonce more

WINTER •gg7 953 on the spot where the bird had alighted.This time we held our to one-quarterbeing black. Yellow skin created a narrowring behind breathas the bird continuedto fly away,over the fur sealbachelor the eyethat wasconnected to the bill in a broadpatch through the beachand beyond the breedingcolony, but it finallydid landon the lores. rockyhillside above the sealsabout a third of a mileaway. We were This bird wasshy and did not allowclose approach. It usually quitesure that therewere no additionalfield marksthat we needed stayednear the borderof the sedges(Carex l?ngb?aei) which were to seein orderto confirmthe identification,but we stillhad to pho- taller than and partiallyconcealed it. During the dayswhich fol- tographicallydocument this occurrence. lowed,however, it oftencame out in the openand foragedalong a Back in town we turned to the limited literature we had with us. two-to-fifteen-meter-wide channel that runs from Antone Lake to In checkingtwo bookson the birdsof Alaska,a completechecklist thebeach. (In someyears the beach is erodedso that tidewater flows for the statethat includedhypothetical species, and the A.¸.U. into Antone Lake via this channel, but it has been blocked since Check-list,we wereunable to find any mentionof ChinesePond- 1994.)It wouldpatrol slowly back and forth along this channel, stop- Heron.The thought that Hoyer had stumbled upon a NorthAmeri- pingoccasionally to standmotionless on the mossy,peaty bank near can first seemedtoo far-fetched.A telephonecall to David Son- the edgeof the water,frequently catching small fish, apparently nebornin Anchorage,however, confirmed the heronas the ultimate Three-spinedSticklebacks, (Aulorh?nchus flavidus), by lunging.We rarity. neverheard any vocalizations, and apparentlyvoice remains undoc- umentedfor the species(Hancock and Kushlan1984). DESCRIPTION The bird was a rather short-leggedheron with a medium-length DISCUSSION neck.Its sizewas difficult to judge,given that it couldbe directly The ChinesePond-Heron remained six daysand waslast seenon comparedonly with the abundantLapland Longspurs (Calcarius August9 (althoughthere was an unconfirmedreport on August11, lapponicus)in the area!It seemedto be smallerthan a CattleEgret sevenmiles from the originalsite). In all, about35 peoplesaw the (Bubulcusibis) but largerthan a LeastBittern (Ixobrychusexilis). bird, includinga few St. Paul residentsand many non-birding Publisheddata show it to beabout the same length as a GreenHeron tourists.Only onefortunate birder, Ted Scudder, happened to be on (Butoridesvirescens), although in flight its whitewings made it ap- theisland at thetime, and another, David Sonneborn, was persuaded pearlarger. The mostimpressive features of thisbird in flightwere to abandonplans for a week-longfamily vacation elsewhere in Alas- the entirelywhite wings,including the coverts,flight feathers,and ka and sawthe heronwithin a few minutesafter landing on the is- axillars.The lower breast,belly, uppertail and undertailcoverts, land. David Kriska, Tonia Bittner, and Hadie Muller were the other rump, tail, and chin were alsowhite. The white areascontrasted tour guideswho rushed to thescene. Smith was able to getsome rea- stronglywith a slaty-blackmantle and back and deep rusty-red head, sonablequality video footageof the bird in flight, and diagnostic neck,and upperbreast. Draped over the upperback were two long photographswere obtained by Sonneborn,John Eastcott and Yva and a fewshorter head plumes, paler orangish in color.A fringeof Momatiuk, and Timon Lestenkof. thin, plume-likefeathers from the lowerback obscured most of the The sexesof ChinesePond-Heron are verysimilar, but females rump.The legsand feetwere orange, and the toesextended beyond lacklong plumes, show white on theforeneck, and lack the black area the tail in flight.The bill waspale yellowish with thedistal one-third on the lower breast. Our bird did not show obvious black on the breast(perhaps its plumagewas worn), but there- strictedwhite on the chinand longplumes (visible in thephotos) indicate that it wasa male,especially whencompared to the apparentfemale pictured in Reid (1992). There are at least two, possiblythree other speciesin the genusArdeola that form a super- specieswith A. bacchus(Payne and Risley1976, del Hoyoet al. 1992).The lavan(A. speciosa)and Indi- an (A. grayii) pond-heronsare the most similar and in fact appearto be inseparablefrom A. bac- chusin the field in immature(predefmitive) and adult winter (definitivebasic) plumages. Luckily, our bird was an adult in breeding (alternate) plumage,and the other speciesin this plumage havea brownishor buff headand neck. The pond- heronshave been considered conspecific with the SquaccoHeron (A. ralloides)(Hancock and Elliott 1978),but there is apparently little evidence to sup- port thisSnesePond-Heron's range, it has been seenbreeding in thesame colonies as Indian Pond- Herons,with no interbreedingoccurring (Ali and Ripley1968, Hancock and Elliott 1978). TheChinese Pond-Heron (Ardeola bacchus) at AntoneLake, St. PaulIsland, Pribilofs, The normal breedingrange of the Chinese Alaska,August 1996. Diagnosticfor the speciesis the richreddish-brown color of the Pond-Heronis almostwholly within China,where headand neck, contrasting with the slaty backand white wings. The longplumes in the southeast it is one of the most common indicatethat the birdwas a male. Photograph/YvaHomatiuk and John Eastcott herons. It breeds sparingly as far north as

954 FIELD NOTES CHINESE POND-HERON

Manchuria(at a latitudeof about44øN, same as the centralOregon much farther to the north. With this in mind, the lack of Chinese coast),but is commononly from Beijing south. It alsobreeds in East Pond-Heronrecords from the KurileIslands and Kamchatkamay India, Burma,Bangladesh, and possiblynorthern Thailand. North- onlybe an artifactof limitedobserver coverage. If it werefound to be ern populationsare migratory (departing September and October), an occasionalvisitor there (as is, for example,Cattle Egret in British and in winter it is foundfrom southernChina throughSoutheast Columbia),a recordin the BeringSea would not seemso surpris- Asiato Borneo(Ali and Ripley1968, Meyer de Schauensee1984, del ing-•comparableto the occurrenceof CattleEgrets in mainland Hoyoet al. 1992).It hasbeen found in a varietyof habitats,including Alaska.Naturally, speculation on the provenanceof this bird and ponds,ditches, and rice fields, and it feedson fishand invertebrates. how it arrivedon North Americanshores, like that for manyother The statusof the ChinesePond-Heron outside its breeding range accidentals,is necessarilybased on conjecture. to the north and northeast is difficult to ascertain as a result of the lackof recent,English-language references. Brazil (1991), in his ex- cellentbook, notes a markedincrease in sightingsin recentyears in Japan.Formerly known there as a rare but annualpost-breeding wanderer,five to fifteenrecords per year becamenormal by 1986, someof whichalso involved spring overshoots and overwintering birds.There are isolated breeding records from 1981and 1986in the southof Japan,but the species apparently is still only a rarevisitor on the northern islandof Hokkaido (which is at the samelatitude asthe northernmostbreeding areas in China). Therehas also been a possiblyparallel increase in the numberof sightingsin southeasternRussia. Dement'ev and Gladkov (1951) list onlyfour recordsfor the formerSoviet Union, but the speciesis now an annual,mostly spring, visitor primarily alongthe coastfrom Khasanat the North Koreanborder (uncommon) north to OlgaBay (rare; just west of Japan'snorthernmost occurrences) (fide K. Mikhailov).Based simply on the numberof records,breeding has beenlong suspected, but neverconfirmed, in thisregion (Knystautas 1983, Flint et al. 1984,fide K. Mikhailov). The reed-bedhabitat wherethese pond-herons have been found,however, is unsuitable for breedingby this tree-nesting, colonial species. It is difficult to saywhether the increasein sightingsnoted in Japanand Russia represents a change in thisspecies' status or is sim- ply the resultof an increasein observercoverage. Brazil (1991) sug- geststhat an actualrange expansion is occurring,but evenif the numberof birdsreaching Japan has increased in recentyears, this Besidesthe ChinesePond-Heron, a numberof othernoteworthy couldsimply be a resultof a populationincrease within the species' birdsoccurred on St. PaulIsland during August 1996. normalrange in China(see Patten and Marantz 1996). It is impor- Thisbright juvenile Little Stint waspresent on August7 and8. Photograph/DavidW. Sonneborn tant to notethat no newbreeding colonies have been found, which wouldhave been expected in thecase of a true rangeexpansion. On theRussian coast north of OlgaBay the Chinese Pond-Heron VAGI•UM'I• TO THE PRIBILOF$ is apparentlyunknown, and thereare no recordsbeyond Hokkaido ThePribilof Islands have long attracted vagrant American and Asian fromthe KurileIslands or from Kamchatka(the mark on the mapat species.Before regular trips were conductedto other western the mouth of the Amur Riverin Dement'evand Gladkov(1951) is an Alaskanoutposts, notably St. LawrenceIsland (Gainbell) and the error,fide K. Mikhailov).The oneNovember record from Kyakhta on outerAleutians such as Attu, this tiny archipelagoaccounted for a the Russian/Mongolianborder south of LakeBaikal (Dement'ev and numberof North Americanfirst records,including Bean Goose (An- Gladkov1951) appears to be a vagrant.More astoundingthan even serfabalis), Falcated Duck (Ariasfalcata), Jack Snipe (L?rnnocr?ptes the St. PaulIsland bird is a recordfrom westernNorway, where an rninirnus),Long-toed Stint (Calidrissubrninuta), Brambling (Frin- adult in breedingplumage was shot in the fall of 1973 (Folkestad gilla rnontifringilla),and Hawfinch (Coccothraustescoccothraustes) 1978). UnlikeAttu or Gambell,however, the Pribilofsare not on or nearany Forsome days previous to thepond-heron's arrival, St. Paul expe- migratorypathways except those of alcids--forwhich the islandsare riencedfairly unusual sustained southwest winds. Apparently these famous--anda very few shorebirdspecies. The vagrantsthat do windswere associated with a seriesof stormsmoving northeastward reachSt. Paul, the islandthat has the greatestvariety of habitats(see alongthe southeastAsian coast, which had culminatedin a "super- Zimmermanand Jones1991) and traditionallythe most observer typhoon."In late July,this stormhit the mainlandof China where coverage,are often truly lost. ChinesePond-Herons are particularly common, perhaps suggesting On St. Paul, many more migrants,especially shorebirds, are that the St. Paul bird had been blown out to sea. On the other hand, presentduring fall than duringspring. Some, like Gray-tailedTat- thisbird mayhave dispersed unusually far northon itsown, making tiers,Red-necked Stints (Calidris ruficollis), Sharp-tailed Sandpipers it to St. PaulIsland only with the helpof the localwind conditions. (Calidrisacurninata), and Ruffs appear to havean eastwarddispersal Manyspecies of heronsare known to disperseafter breeding, being from Siberianbreeding grounds. They are rare but annualon the fairlycommon just northof breedingareas and occasionallyfound Pribilofs.Several individuals, mostly juveniles, of allthese species oc-

WINTER 1997 955 CHINESE POND-HERON

ASIATIC VAGRANTS FOUND tions,Jerusalem. Clearinghouse for FederalScientific and Technical In- ON ST. PAUL ISLAND, ALASKA, AUGUST 1996 formation,Springfield, Virginia. Flint, V.E., R.L. Boehme,Y.V. Kostin, and A.A. Kurznetsov.1984. Field Guzde toBirds of theU.S.S.R. Including Eastern Europe and CentralAsia. ChineseSPECIES Pond-Heron I NUMBER 1 1st North STATUSAmerican record Princeton University Press, New Jersey. MongolianPlover 1 rarein springand fall Folkestad,A.O. 1978.The ChinesePond-Heron Ardeolabacchus found in __ WoodSandpiper )2• rarein spring,casualin fall Norway.Cinclus 1 (1): 8-11. Gray-tailedTarrier 1-6 uncomm•oninfall Gabrielson,I.N., andEC. Lincoln.1959. The Birds of Alaska. Wildlife Man- Red-neckedStint >3 rare,annual in spring agementInstitute, Washington, D.C. and fall Gibson,D.D. 1993.Checklist ofAlaska Birds. University of Alaska Museum, LittleStint 1 __ casualin sp_ringand fall Fairbanks. Temminck's Stint >4 casualin fall Hancock,J., and H. Elliott.1978. The Herons of the World. Harper and Row, New York. •harp-talled Sandpiper )9 uncommonin fall Hancock,J., and J.A. Kushlan. 1984. The Herons Handbook. Harper and Row, ___ Ruff-_.___ >3...... rare,fal_.annual in New York curred during or soon after the ChinesePond-Heron visitation Kessel,B., and D.D. Gibson. 1977. Status and Distribution of Alaska Birds Studiesin AvianBiology No. 1.Cooper Ornithological Society. (table).In addition,a singlejuvenile Little Stint (Calidrisminuta) Knystautas,A. 1993.Birds of Russia. HarperCollins, London. and an adultMongolian Plover were found in August1996; several Meyerde Schauensee, R. 1989. The Birds of China.Smithsonian Institution juvenileWood Sandpipers and Temminck's Stints (Calidris temminc- Press,Washington, D.C. Patten,M.A., andC.A. Marantz. 1986. Implications of vagrantsoutheastern kiOwere present by the end of the month.Over the pastten years vireos and warblers in California. Auk 113:911-923. otherAugust sightings have included Garganey (Anas querquedula), Reid,M. 1992.Birding in HongKong, Part II. Birding24:26-35. Common RingedPlover (Charadriushiaticula), Bristle-thighed Wild BirdSociety of Japan.1982. A FieldGuide to the Birds of Japan. Kodan- Curlew (Numeniustahitiensis), Common Greenshank,Long-toed shaInternational Ltd., Tokyo. Zimmerman,S.T., and I.A. Jones.1991. Birding the PribilofIslands, Alaska Stint,Spoonbill Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus), and Curlew Birding23:270-280. Sandpiper(Calidris ferruginea). The presenceof a bird asexotic as a ChinesePond-Heron in Alas- ka is not asunprecedented as one might initiallythink. Yellow Bit- tern (Ixobrychussinensis), Great Egret (Ardea alba), Chinese Egret (Egrettaeulophotes), Cattle Egret, Black- crownedNight-Heron (Nycticoraxnyctico- tax), and possibly Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)have all previouslyoccurred in the state (D.D. Gibson,pers. comm.). Interest- ingly,Black-crowned Night-Heron has oc- curredtwice on the Pribilofs,once on April 3, 1999 1979,and the otherexactly ten yearsbefore BIRDING the pond-heronsighting, on August6, 1986. Bothof thesebirds were presumably of Asian Ro,Box ,96 TOURS origin.Nevertheless, Ardeola bacchus was not PLANETAFIIUMSTATION ./•j•.•/ • THAILAND on anyone'slist of expectedvagrants. NEWYO•K, NY • •1 9-31 January NORTHWEST INDIA ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 7-30 January We wishto thankIon Dunn, PaulLehman, SRI LANKA MarcoSchilz, Nancy Smith, and Thede Tobish for theirhelp in preparingthis article. We arealso 30 January-15 February "thegreatest // T h e PHILIPPINES gratefulto DanielGibson, who provided informa- operatorof // • ' ',-- tion on the statusof heronsin Alaska,and to Kon- 5 February-8 March stantin Mikhailov, who summarizedthe Russian Asia BHUTAN literature. The editors also wish to thank Paul tours on /// • .... 9 April- 2 May Lehman,who solicited this article for Birdingorig- inally,and who did muchof theediting on it. Specialists WEST CHINA *r*..r Sichuan (Szechwan) 7- 31 May LITERATURE CITED .roer MALAYSlA Ali, S.,and S. D. Ripley.1968. Handbook of the Birdsof India andPakistan. Oxford University 1998 BIRDING TOURS 26 June-18 July Press,Bombay. INDONESIA #1 AmericanOrnithologists' Union. 1983. Check-list Halmahera/Sulawesi NW CHINA MALAYSIA ofNorth American Birds. Sixth Edition. Ameri- 7 July-1 August canOrnithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. Xinjiang Malaya,Borneo, 10-21 June Mt. Kinabulu INDONESIA #2 Brazil,M.A. 1991.The Birds of Japan. The Smith- Lesser Sundas sonJanInstitution Press, Washington, D.C. 27 June-19 July delHoyo, J., A. Elliott,J. Sargatal, et al. 1992. TIBET INDONESIA 1-22 August Handbookof theBirds of theWorld, Volume I: North to SouthTraverse S. Maluku (Moluccas)Is. Ostrichto Ducks.Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Lhasa,Xizang, Qinghai Ambon,Seram, Buru VIETNAM Dement'ev,G.P., and N.A. Gladkov,eds. 1951. The Koko Nor Tanimbar,Kai North, South Birdsof theSoviet Union, Volume I. Translated 19 June-18 July 29 July- 30 August 19 November-13 December 1969by IsraelProgram for ScientificTransla-

956 FIELD NOTES