Two Observations of Malayan Night heron Gorsachius Melanolophus from West Bengal, India

2008·1.1 MB·

by  Mathias Ritschard

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
RECORD OF LARGE CONGREGATION OF LARGE WHISTLING-DUCK
7.
DENDROCYGNA BICOLOR IN THE PURBASTHALI-GANGES ISLETS,
BURDWAN DISTRICT, WEST BENGAL1
Arunayan Sharma2
'AcceptedJuly 30,2007
^CentreforEcologicalEngineering,NetajiSubhashRoad.InfrontofTOP, Malda732 101,WestBengal, India.
Email: [email protected]
Between January 26 and 28, 2007 I went to the Char (1,020), Kamal Nagar Char (982) and RukunpurChar
Purbasthali-GangaIsletsforsurveyingwaterbirds.Duringthe (743). The total numbar recorded on January 26, 2007 was
survey I recorded a large numberofLargeWhistling-ducks 4,420individuals. OnJanuary27 and28,thetotal numberof
Dendrocygnabicoloratvariousplacesinthisfreshwaterriver Large Whistling Ducks was found to be 4,190 and 4,367
system. The Purbasthali-Ganga Islets is situated in the individualsrespectively.
Burdwan district in West Bengal. The vast riverine of The total breeding population ofthe Large Whistling
Purbasthali is located close to the Kasthashali in the Chupi Duckin SouthAsiais20,000(Wetlands International 2002).
CharalongtheRiverGanga.Thiswetlandcomplexisactually The present record of Large Whistling Ducks from the
a cluster ofriverine isles, ox-bow lakes and river channels. Purbasthali-GangaIsletsindicatesthatthiswetlandcomplex
Alargenumberofmigratorywaterbirds,especiallywaterfowl supports more than 20% ofthe existing population ofLarge
winterhere. Whistling-duckinSouthAsia.The Purbasthali-GangaIslets,
OnJanuary26, 2007 at 1015 hrsIfirstnoticedagroup therefore meet the criteria to be protected and designated as
ofLargeWhistling Ducks resting at the Kashthasali Char; I an Important Bird Area under the A4i category (Islam and
counted 895 individuals. Down the river at Idrakpur Char, Rahmani 2004). The Purbasthali-Ganga Islets has been
anothergroupof780individualswasrecorded.Furtherdown evaluated as a top priority for designation as a Ramsar site
the river large groups of this species were found at Rajar (Vijayan etal. 2004).
REFERENCES
Islam, M.Z. & A.R. Rahmani (2004): Important BirdAreas in India: Wetlands ofIndia-Conservation Priorities. Salim Ali Centre for
Priority sites for conservation. Indian Bird Conservation OrnithologyandNatural History,Coimbatore.
Network: Bombay Natural History Society and Birdlife WetlandsInternational(2002):WaterbirdPopulationEstimates-Third
International, U.K. Edition. WetlandsInternational Global Series 12, Wageningen,
Vijayan,V.S.,S.N.Prasad,L.Vijayan&S.Muralidharan(2004):Inland the Netherlands.
TWO OBSERVATIONS OF MALAYAN NIGHT-HERON GORSACHIUS MELANOLOPHUS
8.
FROM WEST BENGAL, INDIA
1
Mathias Ritschard2 PeterLogtmeijer’andAndreasTaschler4
,
'AcceptedOctober03,2006
2MaxPlanckInstituteforOrnithology,Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse, 82319Seewiesen,Germany.Email: [email protected]
3Bloemhof55, 1403 NB Bussum,TheNetherlands. Email: [email protected]
4Johannisbergstrasse8, 8645 Jona, Switzerland. Email: [email protected]
On May03, 2005 aroundnoon, PeterLogtmeijer(PL) a distance of20-30 m before it disappeared into the forest.
and Wouter Puyk observed an adult Malayan Night-Heron The first impression ofthe bird was that ofasmall Eurasian
GorsachiusmelanolophusatMahanandaWildlifeSanctuary Bittern Botaurus stelloris with a large head and stout bill,
,
(WLS)nearSiliguri inJalpaiguridistrict.WestBengal, India. broad rounded wings and legs projecting behind the tail.
The bird was flushed from near a fallen tree in a dry and It looked smallerin size than a Black-crowned Night-Heron
stony riverbed in theeasternpartofthe Sanctuary, along the Nycticoraxnycticorax.The upperparts and sides ofthe neck
Siliguri -Kalimpongroad.TheNight-Heronwasseenwell at were rufous-brown except for the black crown/crest, which
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 105 (1), Jan-Apr 2008 97
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
reacheddowntotheneck.Thewingcovertswerealsorufous- forests, and feeding mainly at night. In the Indian
brown, with the primaries and secondaries appearing black. subcontinent, where it is local and scarce, it is said to be
Theprimarycovertsand/orthebaseoftheprimariesshowed residentorpartlyresidentintheWesternGhatsandthecentral
distinct whitebarring. and southern Nicobar Islands, and a summer visitor in the
On February 03, 2006 before dawn, AT and MR areaofAssamValleytoManipur. InSriLanka,itisaregular
watched birds from a bridge crossing a small stream inside wintervisitor(Rasmussen andAnderton 2005). However, it
BaikuntapurForest, which adjoins the south-eastern part of has not previously been reported from West Bengal, and
Mahananda WLS. The stream had dried up except for two records from the north-eastern states ofIndia are scarce. In
large puddles near the bridge. While watching a number of Assam, it occurs amongotherplaces, in KazirangaNational
passerines, including the White-tailed blue Robin Myiomela Park,whereitissaidtobeanuncommonmigrant(Baruaand
leucura the Pale-chinned Flycatcher Cyomispoliogenys and Sharma 1999), Nameri National Park (rare migrant; Barua
,
the Snowy-browedFlycatcherFicedulahyperythra, dropping andSharma2005) andDibru-SaikhowaNational Park(rare;
in for a bath, AT spotted a small stocky night-heron slowly Choudhury 1997; Choudhury 1998). Malayan Night-Heron
movingtowardsusunderneathalineofbushesattheedgeof has also been reported from Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram
the stream. The initial distance was about 30 m. The head, and Meghalaya(Choudhury 2001; Birandand Pawar2004).
neckand breast were rich rufous, the crown and the longish Our two observations from West Bengal are from
crest were black. Upperparts and wings showed dark locations about 10 km apart and are connected by a
vermiculations on rufous background. Foreneck and breast continuous protected forest. The Mahananda WLS and
showedblackstreaking, andthe belly was whitishwithdark adjoining Baikuntapur Forest provide good habitat for the
markings. The short, stout bill was yellowish; eyes were species, where it may occur regularly and perhaps even
yellow with black pupils. The facial skin and legs showed breeds, buthithertoithasbeenoverlookedintheareadueto
bluish-greencoloration. The bird was easily identified as an its secretive habits. Intriguingly, the species is considered a
adultMalayanNight-Heron.Wewatcheditthroughbinoculars summer visitor in India outside the Western Ghats and the
andatelescopedowntoadistanceof15m,asitslowlymoved NicobarIslands.Thenorth-eastIndianpopulationofMalayan
along the pond in search offood forabout 20 minutes, after Night-Heron is said to migrate south through the Haflong
which it got too dark. It showed a very striking behaviour, district (Ali 1962) and Burma (=Myanmar) between
constantly moving the neck slowly sidewards, describing a August and October, probably wintering in the Malay
sinuous line. Peninsula (Glenister 1951) and Greater Sundas. Passage
Bothobservationswereinsubtropicallowlandevergreen through the Malay Peninsula has been noted in October-
Salforests, whichareveinedbyamosaic ofriversandsmall DecemberandApril,andwinteringbirdshavebeenrecorded
streams. The soil iscovered with low shrubbery, while mid- in Sumatra from November to May (del Hoyo etal. 1992).
height vegetationis scarce and mainly found along streams. OurobservationfromearlyFebruaryisclearlyoutofseason
TheMalayanNight-HeronislocallydistributedinIndia, andmayinfactbethefirstwinterrecordofthisspeciesfrom
China, Southeast Asia and the Philippines, and is the north-eastern part of India. We strongly recommend
migratory, at least in the northern parts of its range. It is furthersearchforthesecretiveandeasilyoverlookedMalayan
generallyuncommonandsecretive, livinginswampyareas in Night-Heron in the Mahananda WLS and neighbouring
denselowlandbroad-leafedevergreenand mixeddeciduous forests to resolvequestions about its local status.
REFERENCES
Ali,S.(1962):TheBNHS/WHObirdmigrationstudyproject.J.Bombay Sanctuary,Assam, India. Oryx32: 192-200.
Nat. Hist. Soc. 59(1): 128-130. Choudhury,A. (2001): Some bird records from Nagaland, north-east
Barua,M. & P. Sharma(1999): BirdsoftheKazirangaNationalPark, India. Forktail17: 91-103.
India. Forktail15: 47-60. Glenister,A.G. (1951): The Birds ofthe MalayPeninsula, Singapore
Barua, M. & P. Sharma (2005): The birds ofNameri National Park, andPenang: 103 OxfordUniversityPress,London.
Assam, India. Forktail21: 15-26. delHoyo,J„A.Elliott&J. Sargatal(1992): HandbookoftheBirds
Birand,A. & S. Pawar (2004):Anornithologicalsurvey innorth-east oftheWorld. Volume 1: OstrichtoDucks:421.LynxEdicions,
India. Forktail20: 15-24. Barcelona.
Choudhury, A. (1997): The status of the birds of Dibru-Saikhowa Rasmussen, PC. & J.C. Anderton (2005): Birds ofSouth Asia. The
Sanctuary,Assam, India. OBC Bulletin 25: 27-29. Ripley Guide. Vol. 1: 60. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx
Choudhury,A.(1998):Mammals,birdsandreptilesofDibru-Saikhowa Edicions,Washington DCandBarcelona.
98 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 105 (1), Jan-Apr 2008