AJP saw this minivet while having a 6-hour walk in the New Territories of Hong Kong last month ‘from Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve up to Leadmine Pass, up to Grassy Hill, then along and up to Needle Hill and down down down to Shing Mun Reservoir’.
On a clear day in Hong Kong minivets are a stunning sight. This one is a male Grey-chinned or Grey-throated Minivet, Pericrocotus solaris. The female is yellow. The scientific name is remarkable since it has not been changed since its description by Edward Blyth in 1846. It is now regarded as a locally common resident with numbers perhaps increased in winter. In Geoffrey Herklots’s time in Hong Kong, the 1930s and 40s, it was marked down as a ‘vagrant’ with very few records. Even in the 1950s and 60s sightings were unusual; two in 1957 and two in 1960.
Although there are a lot more—an enormous lot more—birdwatchers in Hong Kong now than there were in the 20th century, there seems little doubt that the population of this species has increased dramatically. It occurs from the Himalayas eastwards as far as Taiwan and southwards to northern south-east Asia. In much of its range it lives in montane forest.
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