Correspondence 191

last century in the Palani Hills (e.g., Arasumani et al. 2018) may Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos from Desert National have enabled an upward extension of the elevational range of Park, Rajasthan P. xanthopygaeus following the establishment of a preferred A Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos, generally found along the habitat. This hypothesis is consistent with a 2009 reassessment Himalayas (Naoroji 2006; Grimmett et al. 2011; Rasmussen of the avifauna in the areas sampled by Sálim Ali, which found & Anderton 2012; eBird 2018), was reported at the Sudasari a general trend of an increase in ’ elevational ranges enclosure (26.72°N, 70.60°E), Desert National Park, Rajasthan, (Sashikumar et al. 2014). on 05 December 2013. A forest guard and I saw it inside the In conclusion, based on our sightings, historical records, and enclosure, sitting near the inspection road at 1302 hrs. We citizen science records, we conclude that the elevational range observed it for over four minutes, when it started flying, and I took of the Streak-throated definitely extends to 2100 several photographs [229] for identification. The was almost m, and that the species may be found up to c. 2450 m in the entirely dark brown, with white bases to its outer secondaries, southern Western Ghats. and its white inner primaries produced an oval white patch. It had We thank D. Khan and M. Sunkara for accompanying us in a white tail with a broad, crisp, dark terminal band. This confirmed the field, H. Kumar and N. Murugesan for sharing observations, its identification as an immature Golden Eagle, and distinguished Arasumani M. and S. Lele for advice on analysis, and V. V. it from the White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla that also winters Robin for advice on the manuscript. CKV was supported by a sporadically in the Thar. This appears to be the first report of the grant from the Duleep Maathai Nature Conservation Trust, and species from Rajasthan and the Thar Desert, and adds to the AL was supported by National Geographic Society Grant No. amazing raptor diversity of the Desert National Park. WW-186EC-17.

References Ali, S., & Ripley, S. D., 1983. Handbook of the of and Pakistan together with those of , Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Compact ed. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. i–xlii, 1 l., pp. 1–737, 56 ll. Ali, S., & Whistler, H., 1936. The ornithology of Travancore and Cochin. Part IV. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 38 (3): 484–514. Arasumani, M., Khan, D., Das, A., Lockwood, I., Stewart, R., Kiran, et al. 2018. Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats Sky Island. PloS one, 13(1), e0190003. Betts, F. N., 1934. South Indian . Journal of the Bombay Natural History

Society 37 (1): 197–203. Bhardwaj D. K. BirdLife International. 2016. Picus xanthopygaeus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22681453A92907638. Website URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/ IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22681453A92907638.en. [Downloaded on 26 June 2017.] eBird. 2017. Basic Dataset. Version: EBD_relNov-2017. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Nov 2017. 229. Golden Eagle photographed in the Desert National Park, Rajasthan. Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 2011. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press & Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–528. References Kazmierczak, K., & Singh, R., 2001. A Birdwatchers’ Guide to India. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. i–xii, 1–337. eBird 2018. Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) distribution map. Website URL: https:// Kumar, R., Shahabuddin, G., & Kumar, A., 2014. Habitat determinants of woodpecker .org/map/goleag. [Accessed on 02 November 2018.] abundance and species richness in sub-Himalayan dipterocarp forests of north- Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 2011. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. 2nd ed. west India. Acta Ornithologica 49 (2): 243–256. London: Oxford University Press & Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–528. Praveen J., & Nameer P. O., 2015. Bird diversity of protected areas in the Munnar Hills, Naoroji, R., 2006. Birds of prey of the Indian Subcontinent. 1st ed. London: , India. Indian BIRDS 10 (1): 1–12. Christopher Helm. Pp. 704. Praveen, J., 2017. On the geo-precision of data for modelling home range of a Rasmussen, P. C., & Anderton, J. C., 2012. Birds of South : the Ripley guide: field species–a commentary on Ramesh et al. (2017). Biological Conservation 213: guide. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx 245–246. Edicions. Vol. 1 of 2 vols. Pp. 1–378. Sashikumar, C., Vishnudas, C. K., Raju, S., & Vinayan, P. A., 2014. On Sálim Ali’s trail: A comparative assessment of southern Kerala’s avifauna after 75 years. Indian – Devendra Kumar Bhardwaj BIRDS 9 (2): 29–40. Deputy Conservator of forests, Rajasthan Forestry and Wildlife Training Institute Jaipur, Rajasthan, India Sathasivam, K., 2006. The birds of the Palnis - a birdwatcher’s list. Blackbuck 19-20: 136, Nemi Nagar Ext. Near vaishali Nagar, Jaipur 302021, Rajasthan, India 17–64 (2003–2004). E-mail: [email protected] Winkler, H., & Christie, D. A., 2018. Streak-throated Woodpecker (Picus xanthopygaeus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D. A., & de Juana, E., (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. A leucistic Collared KingfisherTodiramphus chloris in Website URL: https://www.hbw.com/node/56310. [Downloaded on 03 January the Sundarbans, 2018]. Zarri, A. A., & Rahmani, A. R., 2005. Annotated avifauna of the Upper Nilgiris, Western While birding, along with Soumyajit Nandy and other tourists, on Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India. Buceros 10 (1): i–iii, 1–46. 20 September 2018, Ashok Mondal spotted a colour-aberrant – Abhimanyu Lele & C. K. Vishnudas near Dobanki Camp (22.01° N, 88.76° E), Sundarbans Abhimanyu Lele & C. K. Vishnudas: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati, Tiger Reserve, West Bengal (Mukherjee 2018). Initially he was Andhra Pradesh, India confused by it, but when he got a closer view, he thought it Abhimanyu Lele: University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. E-mail: [email protected] was a Todirhamphus chloris based on its size C. K. Vishnudas: Hume’s Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology, Kalpetta, Kerala, India. and the colour of its upper and lower mandibles, rather than the 192 Indian BIRDS Vol. 14 No. 6 (Publ. 10 January 2019) Arghya Adhikary 230. Leucistic Collared Kingfisher in the Sundarbans.

similar Black-capped KingfisherHalcyon pileata. Subsequently, Acknowledgements the individual has been sighted several times in that area by many AA would like to thank Rudra Prasad Das, State Coordinator, West Bengal Biodiversity birders, and on 29 September, one of us (AA) and Nityananda Board, for help with technical details and identification, and Radhanath Polley, veteran Choukidar saw it at mid-day; but the bird kept far from us and birdwatcher and naturalist, for identification help. did not allow close-up photographs. It was calling, and its call matched that of a Collared Kingfisher—a harsh kee-kee-kee-‘ References kee-kee’. Nityananda was familiar with the call, and his expertise helped identify the Collared Kingfisher from its call. We were Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 2011. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press & Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–528. able to photograph it the next day [230]. It looked exactly like Grouw, H, v., 2006. Not every white bird is an albino: sense and nonsense about a Collared Kingfisher except for its white plumage, (Kazmierczak colour aberrations in birds. Dutch Birding 28: 79–89. 2009; Grimmett et al. 2011). Hariprasad, M., 2018. Sanctuary Nature Foundation. Website URL: https://www. We watched the bird for almost two-and-a-half hours. What facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155147030091300&set=p.10155147030091300&t we saw was that the bird always tried to fly near a normal coloured ype=1. [Accessed on 04 November 2018.] Collared Kingfisher. We also observed that though the feathers of Kazmierczak, K., 2009. Birds of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh the individual were all white, its eyes, feet, and bill were normal and the Maldives. Reprint ed. Noida, India: Om Books International. Pp. 1–352. in colouration; unlike an albino, which would have red eyes, and Mahabal, A., van Grouw, H., Sharma, R. M., & Thakur, S., 2016. How common is albinism really? Colour aberrations in Indian birds reviewed. Dutch Birding 38: pink feet and bill. As the colour of both the mandibles, the feet, 301–309. and the eyes was not affected by the pigmentation loss and Mukherjee, K., 2018. Website URL: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/ remained almost true to that of a normal Collared Kingfisher, we rare-white-kingfisher-found-in-sunderbans-for-first-time/articleshow/65927704. considered this individual to be a leucistic bird, as described in cms. [Accessed on 04 November 2018.] Grouw (2006), and Mahabal et al. (2016). Pittie, A., 2018. Bibliography of South Asian Ornithology. Website URL: http://www. Mahabal et al. (2016) lists only two prior reports each of southasiaornith.in. [Accessed on 04 November 2018.] Common KingfisherAlcedo atthis and White-throated Kingfisher – Arghya Adhikary & Ashok Mondal smyrnensis from the Indian Subcontinent, while more Arghya Adhikary, 10/1/B/1, Barada Basak Street, Kolkata 700036, West Bengal, India. might exist? However, Hariparasad (2018) reported a leucistic E-mail: [email protected] [AA] bird from the , which may have probably been Ashok Mandal, Village & P.O. Jamespur, P.S. Sundarban Coastal, District, 24 Parganas (South) 743370, West Bengal, India. a Collared Kingfisher. E-mail: [email protected]