HE is small, shy and unassuming. The most flamboyant thing about this bird is his dirty pink bill.
Even his song is described by ornithologists as 'completely unimpressive'.
What makes this cigar-sized creature special is its scarcity - without the Mai Po Marsh Nature Reserve, the Styan's grasshopper warbler would be extinct.
And yesterday, to the great relief of birdwatchers in the territory, two of the tiny warblers were spotted.
'Mai Po marsh is the only site in the world where this bird winters,' said Paul Leader, Hong Kong ornithologist with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
'Each winter it flies over 3,000 kilometres to nest at the reserve. What we are looking at is the extinction of a whole species if Mai Po marsh goes.' Mai Po is better known for the larger waterbird species like the gangly blackfaced spoonbill. This migratory season, 24 per cent of the 350 surviving birds flew to Mai Po.