Kuriakose: Grey-bellied 23

recorded from only a few scattered localities in the hills of Eastern Acknowledgements Ghats and Western Ghats (Narayanan et al. 2007), Recently, I thank my family, Anukul Nath, and Laxmi Narayana who were helpful during my trip it has been recorded from Parvatha Malai hill in Javadi Hills, to the hills. Thiruvannamalai district, Tamil Nadu (Mani 2011). This note will give details on the occurrence of Yellow-throated Bulbul at a new References location in the Eastern Ghats section of Tamil Nadu. Ali, S., & Ripley, S. D., 1987. Compact handbook of the of India and Pakistan to- Yelagiri Hills (12°33’20.9’’N, 78°39’53.9’’E) is a famous hill gether with those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. 2nd ed. Pp. i–xlii, station of Tamil Nadu with an elevation range of 400–1048 1 l., 1–737, 52 ll. Delhi: Oxford University Press. m above MSL. This hill habitat, comprising huge boulders, is BirdLife International 2011. Species factsheet: Pycnonotus xantholaemus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 29 October 2011. overgrown with grasses and thorn scrub. Mani, K., 2011. New site record of Yellow throated Bulbul (Pycnonotus xantholaemus, On 21 October 2011 this hill was visited with the intention Jerdon 1845) in Parvathamalai Hill, Thiruvannamalai district, Tamilnadu. Newsletter of searching for the species. The species was found to occur for Birdwatchers 50 (6): 91–92 (2010). below 650m, where it was quite common. Six pairs of Yellow- Narayanan, S. P., Boopal, A., Nanjan, S., Kurian, J., Dhanya, R., Gomahty, N., Dastidar, D. throated Bulbuls were recorded in tamarind trees Tamarindus G., Rajamamannan, M. A., Venkitachalam, R., Mukherjee, D., & Eswaran, R., 2007. New site record of the Yellow-throated Bulbul Pycnonotus xantholaemus from the indica, and lantana Lantana camara thickets. The birds were Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu (India). Indian Birds 2 (6): 151–153 (2006). observed foraging in lantana bushes. They were also observed Subramanya, S., Prasad, J. N., & Karthikeyan, S., 2007. Status, habitat, habits and con- chasing Red-whiskered Bulbuls Pycnonotus jocosus and Indian servation of Yellow-throated Bulbul Pycnonotus xantholaemus (Jerdon) in south Robin Saxicoloides fulicatus besides their conspecifics. India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 103 (2&3): 215–226 (2006). An instance of adult male Grey-bellied Cuckoo Cacomantis passerinus feeding a juvenile

Jainy Kuriakose

Kuriakose, J., 2012. An instance of an adult male Grey-bellied Cuckoo Cacomantis passerinus feeding a juvenile. Indian BIRDS 8 (1): 23. Jainy Kuriakose, B 207 Habitat Splendour Apts, Gopalan, Kundalahalli, Bangalore 560037, Karnataka, India. Email : [email protected] Manuscript received on 18 October 2012.

n 25 July 2012, around 1000 hrs, we happened to see from tree to tree. The photograph below (Fig. 1) was taken when an interesting feeding behaviour of the Grey-bellied the young crash-landed on a tree-stalk, and the adult male OCuckoo Cacomantis passerinus in Sultanpur village fed it with a caterpillar/grub. Interestingly, the hepatic female, just (28º27’41”N, 76º53’27”E), about a kilometre away from the a tree away, took no interest in this feeding episode, which lasted Sultanpur National Park, Gurgaon district, Haryana. There were no longer than five minutes before the birds flew away. three birds in the vicinity: a hepatic female, an adult male, and Most members of the cuckoo family (Cuculidae) are known a juvenile, perched on adjacent trees, bordering the fields in the brood parasites. However, the adult males of certain are village. The prominent reddish gape, and the overall behaviour known to occasionally feed fledged young of their own species. of the bird led me to conclude that it was indeed a juvenile, and This behaviour appears to be a misdirected courtship feeding by not another female morph. The juvenile seemed to be clueless the male cuckoo as evident from the following observations: first, and lost, and would wait for the adult male to conduct its journey young ones which are still at nest are not known to be fed by adult cuckoos; second, female cuckoos have not been observed feeding fledged chicks; finally, this behaviour has been observed only in taxa like Crested, Glossy, Bronze and Cacomantis sp., cuckoos, in which courtship feeding of females by males is a common behaviour (del Hoyo et al. 1997) Interestingly, Lowndes (1952) reported a possible case of such behaviour in Common Cuckoo canorus. As this behaviour does not seem to have been documented before in Indian cuckoos, this observation on Grey-bellied Cuckoo is noteworthy.

Acknowledgments The author would like to thank Dr. Rajah Jayapal for spotting the image, reviewing the note and to Praveen J for valuable inputs and suggestions.

References del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Sargatal, J. (eds.). 1997. Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol- ume 4. Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Vol 4. 1st ed. Pp. 1–679. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. Lowndes, D. G., 1952. Does the adult cuckoo ever assist in feeding its offspring? J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 50 (4): 945.

22. Adult male Grey-bellied Cuckoo Cacomantis passerinus feeding young conspecific. Photo: Jainy Kuriakose