102 Indian Birds Vol. 9 No. 4 (Publ. 20 May 2014)

Grey-faced Buzzard Butastur indicus from Kamorta Island, Nicobar Islands, India: First photographic documentation

A. P. Zaibin, Niranjan Sant, Krys K. & P. Pramod

Zaibin, A. P., Sant, N., Krys K., & Pramod, P., 2014. Grey-faced Buzzard Butastur indicus from Kamorta Island, Nicobar Islands, India: First photographic documentation. Indian BIRDS 9 (4): 102–103. A. P. Zaibin, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History, Coimbatore 641108, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: [email protected] [APZ] Niranjan Sant, 27, Adarsh Nagar, Vadgaon, Belgaum 590005, Karnataka, India. Email: [email protected] [NS] Krys K., c/o Oriental Bird Club, P O Box 324, Bedford, MK42 0WG, United Kingdom. Email: [email protected] [KK] P. Pramod, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History, Coimbatore 641108, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: [email protected] [PP] Manuscript received on 26 February 2014.

he Grey-faced Buzzard Butastur indicus is a medium-sized The bird was sighted on 24 December 2013 at 0700 hrs raptor with some similarities in appearance to both, the while APZ was conducting a point count survey in the coastal Taccipiters, and Buteo buzzards. The adult has a greyish-brown and inland region of Kamorta Island. It was perched on a tree head and cheeks (greyer in the male, browner in the female), overlooking an expanse of grassland-coastal forest habitat. well demarcated from a white throat with a broad dark mesial Characteristics of the bird, observed using Leica 8x42 binoculars, stripe, and a white supercilium. The upperparts and upper breast included a striking greyish black tip to yellow bill, bright yellow iris are browner, while the remainder of the underparts are white and cere, a prominent dull white supercilium extending above with brown barring. The uppertail coverts form a narrow band of ear coverts; upperparts were dark blackish brown with no spots, white, while the upper tail itself is greyish with three very broad dark brown bars. When perched, the dark brown wingtips almost reach the tip of the long tail. Tail barring is not readily apparent on the undertail unless the tail is spread. In flight the wings can appear relatively short and broad or long and slim, depending on altitude, with five dark-tipped fingers, the underwings being pale with fine dark banding on the flight feathers. The legs, iris, and cere are yellow, the cere tending to orange on some birds (Ferguson-Lees & Christie 2001; photographs on http:// orientalbirdimages.org). This article describes the sighting of a female Grey-faced Buzzard from Remyok (08°07’N, 93°28’E), Kamorta Island (Central Nicobars), Andaman & Nicobar Islands. It was sighted at the edge of some grassland in a tsunami-affected area, less than one kilometre from the coast at just three metres above mean sea level [133].

133. Grassland at edge to tsunami-affected coastal forest where the species was 134-135. Female Grey-faced Buzzard photographed at Remyok, Kamorta Island, sighted Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Zaibin et al.: Grey-faced Buzzard 103

primaries were black extending to tail tip, three broad black bands Berkeley is ‘probably of captive origin’ (Rasmussen & Anderton on tail, yellow tarsus, white tibia feathers; sides of the throat white; 2012) and therefore presumably of uncertain provenance. features of the rest of the underparts could not be clearly noted. The sighting documented here is the first from South Asia to However, less distinct narrow bands on underwings and on long be substantiated with photographic evidence. square-tipped tail, was observed later when probably the same Note that the species is sometimes known as Grey-faced bird was seen gliding 50–100 m above the grassland-forest Buzzard-hawk or Grey-faced Buzzard-eagle (Ferguson-Lees & matrix. The bird was photographed using a Canon Powershot Christie 2001). As a further aside, the specific nameindicus SX20 IS [134-135]. appears to refer to the type locality of Java (East Indies) rather APZ originally sent a photograph [135] misidentifying it as than to India (Jobling 2010). an immature Central Nicobar Serpent Eagle Spilornis minimus (sometimes treated as a subspecies of Crested Serpent Eagle Acknowledgements Spilornis cheela) to KK for inclusion in Oriental Bird Images (OBI), the image database of the OBC, at http://orientalbirdimages.org. We would like to thank Chaiyan Kasorndorkbua for independently verifying the identification. This sighting was made during a project conducted by SACON in Since the first image sent to KK was rather poor, he didn’t inspect collaboration with the Dept. of Environment and Forests, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. it closely before uploading to the website. NS was the first to We are grateful to S. S. Choudhury, PCCF & Secretary, Environment and Forests, ANIs, point out the misidentification. KK enlarged and sharpened the D. V. Negi, PCCF (WL), Ajai Saxena, APCCF (WL), C. V. C. Pandien, CF, A. K. Paul, ACF image somewhat, to make the features more distinguishable. (WL), S. Dinesh Kannan, DCF, Nicobar Division, Mathew, and Joju P. Alappatt, ACFs NS and KK then confirmed it as a female Grey-faced Buzzard. Great Nicobar, Mohammed, Range officer, Kamorta Island, and the staff from the APZ sent a few more images of the bird to them to support the Forest Department for their support. We thank P. A. Azeez, Director, SACON and Lalitha identification. The Thai raptor expert, Chaiyan Kasorndorkbua, has Vijayan, Senior Principal Scientist (Retd.), P. Balasubramanian, Principal Scientist, SACON also independently verified it. and P. Nehru, Research Fellow, SACON for support. Many thanks to field assistants and the people of the Nicobars associated with this programme for their indispensable help Grey-faced Buzzards breed in eastern Asia (north-eastern during the fieldwork. China, Japan, northern Korea, and far eastern Russia) and winter from south-eastern China, Taiwan, through much of Southeast Asia to Borneo, the Philippines, and western parts References of Indonesia. The global population is estimated to number BirdLife International. 2013. Species factsheet: Butastur indicus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 28 August 2013. >100,000 individuals, and the species is not yet on the Red Data Ferguson-Lees, J., & Christie, D. A., 2001. Raptors of the World. 1st ed. London: list although the population is suspected to be declining locally Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–992. owing to persecution (Ferguson-Lees & Christie 2001; BirdLife Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 2011. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. 2nd ed. 2013). London: Oxford University Press & Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–528. Since their main wintering area includes Myanmar Jobling, J. A., 2010. The Helm dictionary of scientific bird names: from Aalgae to Zusii. (Tenasserim) and western Thailand (Robson 2000), just to 1st ed. London: Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–432. the east of the present sighting, the species’ occurrence in Kazmierczak, K., 2000. A field guide to the birds of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is not unexpected. Samant Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. 1st ed. London: Pica Press / Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–352. et al. (1995) reported a record of a Grey-faced Buzzard from Rasmussen, P. C., & Anderton, J. C., 2012. Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide. 2nd ed. Narcondam Island during their survey but gave no further details. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. 2 vols. However, recent field guides treat the occurrence of this Pp. 1–378; 1–683. species in South Asia variously as ‘doubtful species’ (Grimmett Robson, C., 2000. A field guide to the birds of South-East Asia. 1st ed. London: New et al. 2011), ‘sight reports require further documentation’ Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd. Pp. 1–504. (Kazmierczak 2000), and ‘hypothetical species’ (Rasmussen Samant, J. S., Prakash, V., & Naoroji, R., 1995. Ecology and Behaviour of Resident & Anderton 2012). A Sri Lankan specimen in the collection of Raptors with Special Reference to Endangered Species. Bombay: Bombay Natural the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California at History Society. Final Report 1990–1993 Pp. 94+19.

In Memoriam Gerlof Fokko Mees (1926–2013)

Partial bibliography at: http://www.southasiaornith.in/search.php?bib_search_type=&bib_search_list=AU&bib_search_word=mees&search_bib=Search