Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve South Andaman Island Sichuan Leaf Warbler
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VOL. 13 NO. 5 Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve South Andaman Island | Vol. 13 No. 5 13 | Vol. Sichuan Leaf Warbler BIRDS Indian Indian BIRDS CONTENTS www.indianbirds.in VOL. 13 NO. 5 DATE OF PUBLICATION: 16 OCTOBER 2017 ISSN 0973-1407 A revised avian checklist of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), 113 Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India EDITOR: Aasheesh Pittie Abhijeet Bayani & Nikhil Dandekar [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITORS: V. Santharam, Praveen J. EDITORIAL BOARD 125 Bird community response to Tsunami-affected Maan Barua, Anwaruddin Choudhury wetlands of South Andaman Island, India Bill Harvey, Farah Ishtiaq, Rajah Jayapal, Girish Jathar Rajan P. & P. Pramod Ragupathy Kannan, Madhusudan Katti R. Suresh Kumar, Taej Mundkur, Rishad Naoroji Prasad Ganpule, Suhel Quader Harkirat Singh Sangha, C. Sashikumar 132 Heuglin’s Gull Larus fuscus heuglini in the Andaman Islands Manoj Sharma, S. Subramanya, K. S. Gopi Sundar S. Rajeshkumar, Jaison John, C. Raghunathan & Kailash Chandra LAYOUT & COVER DESIGN: K. Jayaram ffICE P. Rambabu O : Bohemian Waxwing Bombycilla garrulus at Rualing, Lahaul, Himachal 133 Pradesh: A second record for India Raj Rawal, C. Abhinav & Manoj Sharma NEW ORNIS FOUNDATION Registration No. 314/2004 FOUNDER TRUSTEES 135 Vigors’s Sunbird Aethopyga vigorsii in Yawal Wildlife Sanctuary, Satpuda Zafar Futehally (1920–2013) Ranges, Maharashtra, India Aasheesh Pittie, V. Santharam Laxminarayan Sonawane, Prasad Sonawane & Gaurav Shinde TRUSTEES Aasheesh Pittie, V. Santharam, Rishad Naoroji, Taej Mundkur, S. Subramanya, Correspondence Suhel Quader, Praveen J. 136 Assemblages of White-winged Redstart Phoenicurus erythrogastrus grandis in the Spiti Valley AIMS & OBJECTIVES Harkirat Singh Sangha, Somendra Singh, Sahdev Singh & C. V. Singh • To publish a newsletter that will provide a platform to birdwatchers for publishing notes and observations Hooded Pitta Pitta sordida in Kalesar National Park, Haryana, India primarily on birds of South Asia. Rajiv S. Kalsi, Suresh C. Sharma & Janak R. Choudhary • To promote awareness of birdwatching amongst the general public. Garden Warbler Sylvia borin in Hanle, Ladakh Ritvik Singh • To establish and maintain links/liaison with other associations or organized bodies in India or abroad An abberant Rusty-fronted Barwing Actinodura egertoni from whose objectives are in keeping with the objectives of the Trust (i.e. to support amateur birdwatchers with Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, India cash / kind for projects in ornithology). Bharat Tamang, Dinesh Subba, Dambar Kumar Pradhan, Mangal Rai, Shambu Rai, Vikram Rai & Umesh Srinivasan 140 Letter to the Editor Sichuan Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus forresti missing in the Volume 13 onwards Indian BIRDS ‘India Checklist’ is only available as PDFs on Edward Vercruysse; Rajah Jayapal & Praveen J.; Jochen Martens www.indianbirds.in. Both, individual papers, and entire issues 140A Snapshot sightings can be downloaded free of cost. FRONT COVER: Beautiful Nuthatch Sitta formosa PHOTOGRAPHER: Subrata Sanyal Address for correspondence: BACK COVER: Oriental White-eye Zosterops palpebrosus New Ornis Foundation, 2nd Flr, BBR Forum, Rd. No. 2, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500034, India. PHOTOGRAPHER: Kallol Mukherjee BAYANI & DANDEKAR: Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve 113 A revised avian checklist of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India Abhijeet Bayani & Nikhil Dandekar Bayani, A., & Dandekar, N., 2017. A revised checklist of avifauna of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India. Indian BIRDS 13 (5): 113–124. Abhijeet Bayani, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune 411008, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: [email protected] [Corresponding author] Nikhil Dandekar, InSearch Outdoors, Ketan Heights, Rahulnagar Lane, Kothrud, Pune 411038, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: [email protected] Manuscript received on 12 February 2017. Abstract Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (henceforth, TATR) is one of the 50 Project Tiger areas of India. However, a meticulous and scientific documentation of its fauna, in recent years, is lacking. We documented avian diversity of TATR between 2010 and 2015. A total of 255 species were recorded during the study, five of which are endemic to India. We noted 17 species that are listed under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 66 species that recorded during 2003 to 2015 by various other visitors/observers, but were not seen by us are listed in Appendix 2. We recorded 20 species not previously reported from TATR. This report provides a revised checklist of the birds of TATR along with their patterns of occurrence and relative abundance. Introduction Although it seems that the avian diversity of TATR has been Birds are one of the most diverse and predominant forms of well documented, most publications are of sight records, or life on Earth, occupying almost all kinds of habitats and biomes. comprise short-term studies specific to a particular season, or TATR is an important tiger reserve of central India. It is a Protected a specific area of TATR. Also, besides Mahabalet al. (2006) Areaunder The Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, whereby no other studies provide estimates of relative abundance. In legal protection has been provided for the conservation of the essence, a long term, systematic study of the avifauna of TATR is habitat and its animal and plant diversity (Quereshi et al. 2014; lacking. We studied avian diversity in TATR for five years and here Bayani et al. 2016). It is also a tourist hotspot. Earlier studies of we provide a revised checklist of the birds of TATR along with their the avifauna of this region exist: A preliminary checklist prepared occurrence and seasonal (relative) abundance, including some by Forest Department, Chandrapur, in 2003 (available at the new records for the area. education centre of TATR), lists 238 species; Mahabal (2006) reports 192 species; while various others, made during casual, Study area short-duration visits to the area include Kurhade (2002), Andheria TATR (19.98º–20.48ºN, 79.18º–79.66ºE) lies in Chandrapur (2003), and Dhamankar (2004). Many individual sightings of District of Vidarbha region in eastern Maharashtra (India), and birds have also been reported from TATR (Dhamankar 2003; ; has vegetation that falls under to the classification: 5A-CI-1B Kasambe et al. 2005; Dhamakar 2006; Sirdesai et al. 2013). Southern tropical dry deciduous forest (Dubey 1999; Bayani 2016). The total area of TATR is 1727.59 sq km out of which 625.82 sq km is designated as the critical tiger habitat (core area), and 1101.77sq km as the buffer area (Fig. 1). The TATR forest is dominated by Tectona grandis, Diospyros melanoxylon, and Terminalia elliptica, and patchily fragmented with thorny bushes and trees like Acacia leucophloea and A. nilotica. Its topography also supports diverse habitats, including open canopy grasslands, stony grasslands along the small hillocks, semi-deciduous riparian forest, perennial- and seasonal streams, wetlands, and agricultural lands. TATR harbours a wide range of faunal diversity including charismatic species like tiger Panthera tigris, leopard P. pardus, Indian wild dog Cuon alpinus, sloth bear Melursus ursinus; ungulates like sambar Rusa unicolor, spotted deer Axis axis, barking deer Muntiacus muntjak, nilgai Boselaphus tragocamelus, four-horned Antelope Tetracerus quadricornis; and lesser-known mammals like the Indian fox Vulpes benghalensis, rusty spotted cat Prionailurus rubiginosus, honey badger Mellivora capensis, small Indian civet Viverricula Fig. 1. Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. Study area with details of sampling areas and important indica, etc., (Dubey 1999; Mahabal 2006; and authors’ personal sightings. observations). 114 Indian BIRDS VOL. 13 NO. 5 (PUBL. 16 OCTOBER 2017) Methodology Table 2. Details of point counts for wetlands Areas were sampled in both, the buffer, and the core zone, though Sr. No. Season Total no. of point Total number of hours areas along the northern, western, and southern boundaries counts of observation were our major study sites. The study was conducted from 1 Winter 2010–2011 144 144 September 2010 to May 2015 during three main seasons, i.e., summer (March–June), monsoon (July–October), and winter 2 Summer 2011 100 50 (November–February), in all the habitats. Transect sampling 3 Monsoon 2011 120 40 (Forbes 1907; Robinette et al. 1974) was followed to census and 4 Winter 2011–2012 140 140 record the bird species in all areas except wetlands, where we followed a point-count method. In all we walked 344 transects 5 Summer 2012 90 40 (712 km total transect length; (Table 1). Transects were covered 6 Monsoon 2012 90 54 between fixed times of the day: 0700 and 0900 hrs, and between 7 Winter 2012–2013 144 144 1600 and 1800 hrs, in all the seasons. We covered 12 wetlands 8 Summer 2013 110 45 during all the seasons, visiting each one of them once a week between 0700 and 0900 hrs (Table 2). The number of species, 9 Monsoon 2013 60 32 and the number of individuals per species, were counted for 10 Winter 2013–2014 120 120 each transect, and every point count. Identification of most of the 11 Summer 2014 54 27 bird species was based on Grimmett et al. (2011), and Naoroji (2007). We compiled seasonal lists of all transects separately, 12 Monsoon 2014 72 30 and the data from one particular season, across consecutive 13 Winter 2014–2015 122 122 years, was pooled together for further analysis. Species were 14 Summer