Wintering Range Extension of White throated Bushchat Saxicola Insignis Gray in India

2007·1.1 MB·

by  Kulojyoti Lahkar

.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
patterned, each with a darker brown shaft and pale fringe. Asecond-winterontheGangesatGarhmuktesar,Uttar
Therewasanoticeablypalergreatercovertpanel,thetertials Pradesh (28° 48' N; 78° 06' E) on March 05, 1993 (Robson
werecontrastinglydarkbrownandneatlyfringedwithwhite, 1993).
this fringe being broadest around the tips ofthese feathers. A first-winter visitor seen by Per Underland at the
Thefoldedprimarieswereevendarkerbrownthanthetertials Harike LakeWildlife Sanctuary, Punjab(31° 10'N; 74° 57'E)
and appeared similar in shade to thetail band. on January 9-15, 1994 (Robson 1994).
The legs were dull pink, aswasthe bill base. The distal The RiverChaporaatMorjim, Pemem,Goa(15° 37'N;
thirdofthebillwasneatlytippedblack,andtheeyesweredark. 73° 44' E) on December 14, 1996.
Thebirdappearedindistinguishablefromthenominate An adult at Pong Wetland, Kangra district, Himachal
western Lams canus canus, which we see abundantly in Pradesh (32° 05' N; 76° 00' E) on February 06, 2004 (Jan
Britain, but on range is most likely to have been the very WillemdenBesteninlift. December2004Unpublisheddata).
similar Lams canus heinei. These two subspecies are not Elsewhereintheregion,thespeciesisconsideredtobe
safely distinguishable in the field. avagranttoNepal,whereInskippandInskipp(1985)listthree
records, all in January-Februarybetween 1979 and 1983. The
Status MewGull israre in Pakistan,where Roberts(1991)notedfive
This is perhaps onlythe fourth ofthe five sightings in records,involvingsixbirds,includingaprobablyexceptionally
India, and is currently probably the southernmost anywhere sightingas late in theseasonasApril 04, 1984.
inAsia. Kazmierczakandvan Perlo(2000)mapfourrecords
forIndia,whileGrimmettetal. (1998)mapthethreeearliest ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
sightings, and there is an additional, more recent record. In
date orderthese are:- I thank Krys Kazmierczak for helping with the
Afirst-wintervisitorontheRiverYamunaatOkhla,Delhi references and proofreading this short note and Jan Willem
(28° 34' N; 77° 17' E)onJanuary 19, 1992 (Alstrom 1994). den Besten forproviding informationon his sighting.
Alstrom, P. (1994): Common GullLams canus Linnaeusrecorded in the Indian Subcontinent. PicaPress, Sussex. Pp. 130.
India.J. BombayNat. Hist. Soc. 90: 509-510. Olsen, K.M. & H. Larsson (2003): Gulls ofEurope, Asia andNorth
Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (1998): Birds ofthe Indian America. Helm,London. Pp. 65-92.
Subcontinent. ChristopherHelm, London. Pp. 504. Roberts,T.J.(1991):TheBirdsofPakistan,Vol. 1 Non-passeriformes.
Inskipp,C. &T. Inskipp(1985):AGuidetothe BirdsofNepal. 2ndedn. Oxford University Press,Oxford, pp. 375-376.
ChristopherHelm, London. Pp. 158. Robson, C. (1993): FromtheField. OrientalBirdClubBull. 17: 51
Kazmierczak,K.& B.vanPerlo(2000):AFieldGuidetotheBirdsof Robson, C. (1994): FromtheField: OrientalBirdClubBull. 20: 57.
WINTERING RANGE EXTENSION OF WHITE-THROATED BUSHCHAT
7.
SAXICOLA INSIGNISGRAY IN INDIA1
Kulojyoti Lahkar2and Mridu Paban Phukan3
'AcceptedJanuary27,2006
2JETABAN,AryaNagar,P.O. GopinathNagar,Guwahati781 016,Assam,India. Email: [email protected]
'MilanNagar,Naharkatia786610, Dibrugarhdistrict,Assam, India. Email: [email protected]
ThewinteringrangeofthegloballyVulnerableWhite- 40'E)andMerbil(27° 19'N;95° 18'E)nearNaharkatia.The
throatedBushchatSaxicolainsignisGrayinIndiawasknown White-throatedBushchathasalsobeenobservedinotherareas
tobefromHaryanatoJalpaiguri,northWestBengal(Aliand ofAssam otherthan thesetwo places.
Ripley 1987) before two records in Assam extended its In the afternoon of January 25, 2004, a male was
wintering range further east to Manas National Park (26° observed in Merbil nearNaharkatia, foraging on anAlpinia
40'-50' N; 90° 50'-91° 25' E) (Narayan and Rosalind 1997), allughas grove and calling “tsek ... tsek ... tsek’'. The bird
and laterto KazirangaNational Park (26° 30'- 45'N; 93° 5'- was observed at about4 m height fromthe water level.
40'E)(Sarmaetal. 1997). Recentobservation ofthis bird in A female bird was observed on the northern edge of
easternAssamhasfurtherextendeditswinteringeasternrange DeeparBeelBirdSanctuary(26°05'N;91°40'E)onFebruary
to Dibru-Saikhowa National Park (27° 35'-50' N; 95° 10- 02, 2003 by the first author. It was foraging among short
348 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 104 (3), Sep-Dec 2007
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
observedforagingonApril04, 1997atKolomigrasslandnear
.v\*vv 9o<tF- ONIABTRIUO-NSAALIPK9AHROKWAfS( Kolomicamp(27°37’N;95°21'E).ThenonMarch01, 1999
r> twomaleswereobservedat Kundaghatareaandalonemale
*j M S/ MOPNRAADCEHSAHL - 27° wasobservednearKolomi(27°38'N;95°20'E)onApril 15,
2000. The habitat of the area was Salix Salix tetrasperma
BWEENGSATL^(' MANASNATIONALPARK ^£5^ Ay' swamp forest mixed with grassland. Later, on December 19
>§£riiK.V MEGHAL,AYADISP*AACRN>C.BTEUELARBYIR.Dn#_fr;i•J'W'AHAcvTI V IN Sa95na°dik220h0'o,wE2)a00aNt4ataaiboofnueatmla1lP0ea3rw0kahwsoeuorrbess.emrAalvdleedobbatsyeTtrohvreaatslieiocmnousnkdihna(tu2ht7eh°oDr3i.8b'rNu;-
T Fromtheseobservationsitisclearthattheeasternmost
f// winterrangeoftheWhite-throatedBushchatinIndiaextends
.,A A-; CAPITAL at least up to Dibru-Saikhowa National Park (Kolomi
\ •NEWRECORDS
J' %‘T’'.V-m'i"z°bW* )L APREVIOUSRECORDS 9g5r°as1s8l'aEn)do2f7A°s3s7a'm.N;An9o5t°he2r1’imEp)oratanndtMpeorinbtilis(t2h7at°a19s’maNl;l
population ofSaxicola insignisregularly visits both Deepar
Fig. 1: PastandpresentwinteringsitesofWhite-throatedBushchat Beel Bird Sanctuary and Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.
grasses andground close to the water. Later, on January 01, However, there has been no recent report ofthis species in
2004, one male was observed in the same area. Again on Manas and Kaziranga national parks after the sightings of
January 01, 2005, one female was observed on an Ipomoea Narayan and Rosalind (1997), and Sarmaetal. (1997).
aquaticagroveinthenorthernedgeoftheSanctuarycloseto
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
the Satmile.
Onanotheroccasion,amalewasseenbythefirstauthor
on February 10, 2004 neartheJiaDhal river(27° 25' N; 94° We thank Dr. Asad R. Rahmani, Director, BNHS for
30' E) close to National Highway 31 and 10 km west of hiscommentsonthemanuscript.Dr.AnwaruddinChoudhury
Dhemajitown.Thebirdwasperchedon Vetiveriazizanioides forhiscommentsonanearlierdraft.Kulojyoti Lahkarthanks
grass. There wereothershortgrassesandsmall scrubs inthe Mrs.InduPhukanandherfamilyforhospitalityatNaharkatia
area. and Devasish Thakur of Wildlife Conservation and Study
In Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, a lone male was Centre foraccompanying to Deeparbeel.
REFERENCES
Ali, S. & S.D. Ripley(1987): Compact Handbook ofthe Birdsofthe J. BombayNat. Hist. Soc. 94(3)\ 572-573.
IndiaandPakistan.OxfordUniversityPress,Mumbai,pp.584-585. Sarma,P.,M. Barua&V. Menon(1997): OrangebilledJungleMynah
Narayan,G.&L.Rosalind(1997):Winteringrangeandtimeextension and Hodgson’s Bushchat in Kaziranga National Park. J. Bombay
of Hodgson’s Bushchat Saxicola insignis Gray in India. Nat. Hist. Soc. 94(1): 156-157.
8. FORESTWAGTAILDENDRONANTHUS INDICUS IN JAMNAGAR MEDICALCAMPUS'
Maulik S. Varu2 JalpanC. Rupapara3 and Purvesh K. Kacha4
,
'AcceptedJuly21,2005
2c/oS.N.Varu,Junavas,TempleStreet,Madhapar(Bhuj-Kutch) 370020.Gujarat, India.Email: [email protected]
3c/oChetanH. Rupapara,BehindSrinathNagar,nearManasNagar,Junagadh362002,Gujarat,India.Email:[email protected]
4c/oKishorbhai P. Kacha,SarafBazarMain Road,Vanthali(Sorath),Junagadh362610,Gujarat,India. Email: [email protected]
On February 23, 2005, at 1430 hours, we sighted a and Dang forest (Dharmakumarsinhji 1954, 1963).
ForestWagtailDendronanthusindicusonaNeemtreeinour Himmatsinhji (1967, 1970) had seen this bird at Bhuj in his
hostelcampus.Wephotographedthebird(Eds:photographic gardenonJanuary 10, 1967 andagainat Vijayvilas, Mandvi
evidenceprovided)andobserveditforthenextthreedaysat onDecember31,1969. Khacher(1989)hadseenitatJasdan
the sameplace. inhis compound on November 19, 1967.
Dendronanthusindicusismostlyrecordedinevergreen Our campus is in the middle ofJamnagar city, hence
and deciduous forests. In Gujarat, it is recorded in the Gir this sighting is worth recording.
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 104 (3), Sep-Dec 2007 349