Recent Ornithological Literature from South Asia and Tibet Aasheesh Pittie 8-2-545 Road No 7, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500034, India
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Indian Birds Vol. 2 No. 2 (March-April 2006) 39 woodpecker, a mere 13 cm from beak to tail, It was time for the last walk of the day, Once the railway track to Simla was couldn’t be expected to hammer any louder. this time ostensibly to work up a thirst for a commissioned, in 1903, Subathu slipped into I was looking into the sun and it was difficult sun-downer! Descending through freshly one hundred years of solitude. But that most to tell whether it was the Brown-capped ploughed, terraced fields, we put up clouds imposing colonial mansion, Kennedy Dendrocopos nanus or Grey-capped D. of sparrow-sized birds. The first impression House, was retained in its pristine dignity. canicapillus. For the Brown-capped, at was of an exclusive congregation of female Today it serves as the Garrison Officers’ about 1,067 m, this may well be an altitudinal House Sparrows Passer domesticus. That Mess and the trees around it are full of avian record. was untenable, of course. Closer comings and goings the year long. To work up an appetite for lunch, we observation revealed the birds to be On the drive back to Chandigarh we lost gained several other ridge tops, ultimately Hodgson’s Mountain-Finches Leucosticte count of the Streaked Laughingthrushes reaching a pine–covered open patch, at least nemoricola in flocks of upto a hundred. Trochalopteron [Garrulax] lineatus and the 457 m above Subathu. By now the sun was With that, the tally of my lifetime’s first Blue Whistling-Thrushes that crossed our fairly hot and a few Common Kestrels Falco encounters, in the past 24 hour period, path. Stopping at a way-side eatery for a tinnunculus were floating on thermals, no stood at an incredible six. Of course, cup of coffee, we saw on the facing hill slope doubt looking for food. But some Eurasian altogether we had seen more than thirty one Great Tit, a pair of Indian Robins Griffons Gyps fulvus seemed to be riding species and heard an equal number in less Saxicoloides fulicata and several Common the thermals for the sheer joy of it. As we than two days. So Subathu is definitely an Mynas Acridotheres tristis in a tight knot settled to a sandwich–black coffee lunch, I attractive destination for serious bird on the ground, locked in mortal combat. noticed a bird hawking insects with short watching. What more could one ask of life, when you sallies into the air. It resembled the male Almost all Army Cantonments of Subathu have an abundance of such innocent Oriental Magpie-Robin Copsychus saularis vintage are steeped in the history of the pleasures! and so I took no further notice. But when it Raj. When Simla became the summer capital, perched on a bush directly below us, the Governors’ Generals / Viceroys of India rode Reference bird revealed its powder-blue crown and up on horse-back and Subathu was the Singh, B. 2006. Can we augment the Important nape. This lifer was a male Blue-capped natural midway staging post. The garrison Bird Area concept in India? The role of large Redstart Phoenicurus caeruleocephalus. commandant’s residence, which Capt. P.C. landholdings outside Protected Areas. Indian That moment will also remain a lifetime’s Kennedy had constructed around 1820, Birds 2 (1): 18-20. regret, for not having carried a spare film- now inevitably became the great watering- roll. A moment later, a Great Barbet hole for Raj personalities on their annual Megalaima virens came and perched so altitudinal migration (!) and in the process close at eye–level that I could count its embalmed this quaint little cantonment with moustachial bristles! This was a lunch hour, the mystique, nostalgia, romance and truly of dreams. gossip of the Raj. Recent ornithological literature from South Asia and Tibet Aasheesh Pittie 8-2-545 Road No 7, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500034, India. Email: [email protected] BOOKS South Asia. The Ripley guide. Field guide. Vol. Sandpiper survey draws a blank. http:// Chandan, P., A. Chatterjee, P. Gautam, C.M. 1. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: www.birdlife.org/news/news/ 2005/02/spoon- Seth, J. Takpa, S.-u. Haq, P. Tashi & S. Vidya Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. billedsandpiper.html. Date accessed: 9 2005. Black-necked Crane - Status, breeding Rasmussen, P.C.J.C. Anderton 2005. Birds of February 2005. productivity and conservation in Ladakh, South Asia. The Ripley guide. Attributes and Dalton, Rex. 2005. Ornithologists stunned by India 2000-2004. (ed.). Delhi: WWF-India & status. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C. and bird collector’s deceit. Nature Online. [URL: Department of Wildlife Protection, Govt. of Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx www.scientist.com/news/20051017/01/ Jammu & Kashmir. Edicions. printerfriendly]. Date accessed: 14.ix.2005. Dang, H. 2005. Sariska National Park. (ed.). Spierenburg, P. 2005. Birds in Bhutan. Status Flores, Graciela. 2005. Impact of bird fraud New Delhi: Indus Publishing Company. and distribution. 1st. (ed.). Bedford, U.K.: unclear. The Scientist. [URL: http://www.the- Dave, K.N. 2005. Birds in Sanskrit literature. Oriental Bird Club. scientist.com/news/20051017/01/ Revised. (ed.). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Sreekumar, B. 2005. Vembanad water bird count printerfriendly]. Date accessed: 17.x.2005. Publishers Private Limited. 2005. (ed.). Kottayam: Department of Jeganathan, P., A.R. Rahmani & R.E. Green. Grimmett, R.T. Inskipp 2005. Birds of southern Forests and Wildlife, Govt. of Kerala / 2005. Construction of Telugu-Ganga Canal in India. 1st. (ed.). London: Christopher Helm. Kottayam Nature Society. and around two protected areas in Cuddapah Kumar, A., J.P. Sati, P.C. Tak & J.R.B. Alfred Verghese, A., S. Sridhar, A.K. Chakravarthy, district, Andhra Pradesh, India. Immediate 2005. Handbook of Indian wetland birds and H.R. Bhat & P. Karanth (eds.). 2005. New threat to the world population of the critically their conservation. 1. (ed.). Kolkata.: Director, initiatives for bird conservation. Bangalore: endangered Jerdon’s Courser Rhinoptilus Zoological Survey of India. INCERT & Newsletter for Birdwatchers bitorquatus. Survey report, Bombay Natural Leela, N.S. (ed.) 2005. New initiatives for bird History Society: 1-19. conservation. Student supplement. Bangalore: ONLINE PUBLICATIONS / Vasudha, V. 2005. Where have all the sparrows INCERT & Newsletter for Birdwatchers. GREY LITERATURE gone? [URL: http://www.indiatogether.org/ Rasmussen, P.C.J.C. Anderton 2005. Birds of BirdLife International. 2005. Spoon-billed 2005/aug/env-sparrow.htm.] 40 Indian Birds Vol. 2 No. 2 (March-April 2006) PAPERS Chantler, P. 2005. Dark-rumped Swifts: notes and field identification of Asian rosefinches. Alula on their breeding plumage and how to see 3: 18-27. Forsman, D. 2005. Eastern Imperial Eagle them. 4: 39-40 (with one map, one pl., and Redman, N. 2005. Reviews: Leopards and other plumages. 11 (4): 146-152 (with 12 col. two photos). wildlife of Yala. 3: 93. photos). Choudhury, A. 2005. Asian Openbills nesting in Robson, C. 2005. From the field: India. 2 bamboo. 3: 69. (December): 98 (2004). Animal Conservation Collar, N.J. 2005. Changes in species-level Robson, C. 2005. From the field: Sri Lanka. 2 Jones, K., J. Barzen & M.V. Ashley. 2005. taxonomy of Asian birds in 2004, with other (December): 102 (2004). Geographical partitioning of microsatellite notes. 3: 35-40. Robson, C. 2005. From the field: Myanmar. 2 variation in the Sarus Crane. 8: 1-8. Feijen, C., H.R. Feijen & G.G.M. Schulten. 2005. (December): 99-101 (2004). Raptor migration in Bhutan: incidental Robson, C. 2005. From the field: India. 3: 78-79. The Auk observations. 3: 61-62. Robson, C. 2005. From the field: Sri Lanka. 3: Rappole, J.H., S.C. Renner, N.M. Shwe & P.R. Gautam, R.N. Baral. 2005. White-rumped 80. Sweet. 2005. A new species of Scimitar- Vulture studies in Rampur Valley, Nepal. 2 Robson, C. 2005. From the field: Bhutan. 4: 84. Babbler (Timaliidae: Jabouilleia) from the sub- (December): 81-82 (2004). Robson, C. 2005. From the field: India. 4: 85-86. Himalayan region of Myanmar. 122 (4): 1064- Giri, J.B.G.C. Som. 2005. Survey of nesting Robson, C. 2005. From the field: Nepal. 4: 88. 1069. vultures in Royal Suklaphanta Wildlife Robson, C. 2005. From the field: Burma. 4: 87- Reserve, west Nepal. 3: 9. 88. Biological Letters Grimmett, R. 2005. BirdLife in Asia - a 10-year Salgado, A. 2005. A nest record of Spot-winged Pande, S. 2005. The shrike in Sanskrit literature overview. 4: 15-22 (with three tables and one Thrush Zoothera spiloptera in Sri Lanka and since 400 BC. 41 (2): 191-193 (2003). map). some notes on its plumage with particular Pande, S., A. Pawashe, N. Sant & A. Mahabal. Harvey, B. 2005. Reviews: Numbers and reference to its postocular bare skin patch. 4: 2005. Status, habitat preferences and distribution of waterbirds and wetlands in the 64-66 (with six photos). population estimates of non-breeding shrikes Asia-Pacific region: results of the Asian Shahabuddin, G., A. Verma & R. Kumar. 2005. Lanius spp. in Maharashtra and Karnataka Waterbird Census 1997-2001. By David Li Bird monitoring in Sariska Tiger Reserve, states, India. 41 (2): 65-69 (2003). Zuo Wei and Taej Mundkur. 3: 93. north-west India. 3: 63-65. Harvey, B. 2005. Review: The birds of South Sharma, S. 2005. Population status and Bird Conservation International Asia: the Ripley guide. Volumes 1 & 2. By distribution of Lesser Adjutant Leptoptilus Gamauf, A., J.-O. Gjershaug, N. Rov, K. Kvaloy Pamela C. Rasmussen and John C. Anderton. (sic) javanicus in Bardia, Kailai and & E. Haring. 2005. Species or subspecies? The 2005. 4: 80-83. Kanchanpur districts, western Nepal. 3: 8. dilemma of taxonomic ranking of some South- Hruby, J.