Violet Whistling Thrush, and the winter visiting rock and and woodland species and the Chinese Blackbird. The wagtails are represented here by three common winter visitors; the robin-red breast by the resident Magpie-Robin, and the visiting Bluethroat, Rubythroat and Blue-Tailed Robin; the swallow by the Eastern House Swallow, a summer visitor; the diurnal birds of prey by Kestrel, Peregrine, Buzzard, Sparrow-Hawk, Harriers, Kite, Osprey, and Sea-Eagle; the nocturnal by numerous species of owls. Apart from these there are other birds closely related to English species among the pipits, kingfishers (five species), chats, buntings, gulls, and waders. Among the most conspicuous birds of country and town are the bulbuls of which three species are resident, namely, the Chinese, the Red-whiskered Crested, and the Red-vented. The summer visitors include the Black-naped Oriole, drongos, the Chinese Great Barbet, cuckoos, egrets and pond herons.
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Birds are very conservative in their choice of locality and it is possible to make a list of places and assign to each a list of birds which might be seen there at any given time of the year. For example woodpeckers are habitually, and not unnaturally, to be found in woods, sandpipers in sandy bays, stonechats and redstarts on grassy common land scattered with shrubs. In the New Territories as many as thirteen different types of habitat can be classified and each has its own habitual visitors. The best districts for bird watching in the Colony are: (1) the Ping Shan district stretching from Ping Shan to Mai Po and west to the Mong Tseng Peninsula, an area including the paddy fields, marshes and mudflats of Deep Bay (2) the Lam Tsun Valley, entered from the main road about one mile north of Taipo, and extending to the slopes of Taimoshan and to the pass leading to Pat Heung and Kam Tin (3) the Shum Chun Valley including the low hills and valleys just south of the Chinese frontier (4) the Kam Tin district and the broad expanse of the Pat Heung Valley (5) the foreshore of Starling Inlet in the neighbourhood of Sha Tau Kok, and the bordering paddy fields and woods (6) the Sha Tin district from the Station across to and along the eastern foreshore of Tide Cove.
In each of the above six districts is included a wide variety of the different types of habitat to be found in the Colony.
All resident birds and summer visitors breed in the Colony but we have only records of the nidification of a small proportion of these. The egg-laying season extends from mid-December to the end of August and some species hatch two or three broods so there is plenty of scope for the keen egg-hunter.
The Island of Hong Kong has been made a sanctuary for birds by law, the effect of which is to provide that no bird of any description other than magpies, kites and hawks may be killed, wounded or taken on the Island of Hong Kong. In the New Territories birds are similarly protected with the exception of game birds which may be shot in season by those who hold gun and game licences. These birds include woodcock, snipe, francolin, doves, ducks and geese.
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