7. Purple Heron Ardea Purpurea (Linn.) (Ardeidae) Nesting on Water Hyacinth Eichhornia Crassipes (Pontederiaceae)

2 Pages·2000·1.2 MB·

by  Aeshita Mukherjee

MISCELLANEOUSNOTES
andfully featheredtarsuswithwebs onthe feet. Live measurements of the bird are as
Regarding the lesser frigate bird, ‘female is the follows: —
only frigate bird with white underparts and Wing 560 mm
—
whitish throat’, according to Alexander 1995; Wing span — 1,700 mm (57")
handbook Vol. 1, pp. 48. The bird is also Bill (from feathers) — 80 mm
suspected to be immature as the head and hind Tarsus 25 mm
—
neck are white. Middle toe 60 mm
—
The first bird was recorded from Quilon Tail 125 mm (Inner)
in 1928 and this the second one from the Salim — 228 mm (Outer)
Ali Bird Sanctuary, in 1998. This is the only Weight 680 gm
female and immature specimen available in the
Subcontinentnowasperpublishedrecords. The July 31,1998 R. SUGATHAN
bird died after a day. When it was cut open its K.K. SIVAN
stomachwas empty, andthe ovarygranularand SalimAli Wild Wings Trust,
illdeveloped. Thestuffedspecimenisdisplayed Ecological Research Station,
atthe interpretationcentre ofthe SalimAliBird ThattakadBirdSanctuary,
Sanctuary Museum. Njayapilly 686 691, Kerala, India.
7. PURPLE HERONARDEA PURPUREA (LINN.) (ARDEIDAE) NESTING ON
WATERHYACINTHEICHHORNIA CRASSIPES(PONTEDERIACEAE)
On April 29, 1997, we saw four nests of hadtwonestsofpurpleheroninthenestbuilding
the purple heronArdeapurpurea on thick mats stage, and one in the early incubation stage.
of water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes on On the same date, other colonial waterbirds in
Kanajari village pond, 10 km northwest of the heronry were little egrets (9), large egrets
Anand (22° 32' N, 73° 00' E) in Kheda district, (10), little cormorants (12) andwhite ibises (8).
m
Gujarat. The fournests were 10-15 apart and Foraging cattle egrets (15) were seen in breed-
farawayfromsomeAcaciatreesemergingfrom ing plumage, but they had not initiated nest
the tank. The nest material contained water building.
hyacinth and dry thorny twigs. Initially we The nest of the purple heron is usually
thought that somewhat grownyoung ones were made ofPhragmites or Typha stems and built
standingonthewaterhyacinth,butsoonrealized on a flattened site in dense reedbeds, rushes or
that they were nestlings in their nest, when we papyrus (Hancock and Kushian 1984). Twig
sawadultbirdsarriving, withgreetingcalls,and nests are also built in thickets in Asia (Ali and
feeding the young. There were 2 young ones in Ripley 1983, Hancock and Kushian 1984).
twonests andone inthe 3rdnest, all 5 weeks of Hence, nesting on water hyacinth is a new
age. Thefourthnestwasintheincubationstage. record.Waterhyacinthalwaysfloatsonthewater
Consideringtheageoftheyoung,andtheknown surface and hence the nest is safe against an
incubation period i.e. 26 days (Hancock and increaseinwaterlevel. ThenestsonPhragmites
Kushian 1984), it can be presumed that the or Typha do not offer such safety. This
clutcheswereinitiatedinthefirstorsecondweek observation indicates a prolonged breeding
of February. The heronry initiated on the season(February to September orOctober) at a
Acacia nilotica trees standing within the pond givensite,withtheprobabilityofdoublenesting.
424 JOURNAL, BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY, 97(3), DEC. 2000
MISCELLANEOUSNOTES
Acknowledgements November9, 1998 AESHITAMUKHERJEE
B.M.PARASHARYA
We are thankful to the Indian Council of AINP on Agricultural Ornithology,
Agricultural Research, New Delhi, for financial Gujarat Agricultural University,
support, and to Dr. D.N. Yadav, Officer-in- Anand Campus, Anand388 110,
charge, for encouragement. Gujarat, India.
References
Ali, S. &S.D. Ripley(1983): HandbookoftheBirdsof Hancock,J.&J.Kushlan(1984):TheHeronsHandbook.
IndiaandPakistan.Compactedition.OxfordUniversity CroomHelm,London.
Press,NewDelhi.
8. PALLAS’S FISHINGEAGLEHALIAEETUSLEUCORYPHUS(PALLAS)
PIRATES FISH FROM AN OTTERLUTRA LUTRA (LINN.)
I observed four common otters (Lutra (Prakash 1989).
lutra) on boulders in the middle of the River
Manas.Theotterswerefishing;theywouldcome Acknowledgements
out of the water with the fish and feed while
sitting on the boulder. A Pallas’s fishing eagle I am thankful to Dr. Vibhu Prakash,
wasnoticedcirclingabovetheotters,repeatedly Principal Scientist, BNHS, Bharatpur for his
trying to snatch the fish. It made two or three guidance and to the Pigmy Hog Conservation
futile attempts by diving at the otter. After a Programmepersonnel fortheirhelpduring field
while,thebirdmade anotherattempt. Thistime, trips.
the otter was frightened and dropped the fish,
whichwas neatly pickedupby the eagle in one October8, 1998 BIBHUTIPRASADLAHKAR
swoop. The Pallas’s fishing eagle is regularly c/o Niramoy Pharmacy
knowntopiratefishfromotherfisheatingbirds, Near Ganesh Mandir, Ganeshguri Tiniali,
or smaller eagles, but very few have been Dispur, Guwahati 781 006,
recorded robbing otters or other mammals Assam, India.
Reference
Prakash,V.(1989):GeneralEcologyofRaptorsinKeoladeoNationalPark.Ph.D.thesissubmittedtotheUniversityof
Bombay.
9. GROUP SIZE AND VIGILANCE IN INDIANPEAFOWL
PAVOCRISTATUS(LINN.),FAMILY:PHASIANIDAE
Flocking in birds is considered to be an feeding in large flocks are safer (in terms of
adaptive social strategy against danger, and the number ofbirds alert at any moment) and have
evolution of gregariousness is an effective more time to feed (in terms ofthe proportion of
solution to the problem of the individual’s its time that an individual spends alert). It is
vigilanceload(DimondandLazarus 1974).Birds knownthatthetimebudgetofaspeciesisrelated
JOURNAL, BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY, 97(3),DEC. 2000 425