176 SHORTNOTES Forktail 16 (20

Elusivegmund-dwelling tropical forest bird species, REFERENCES lone characterizedas exceedinglyrare, often prove to be reasonably their vocalizaiionshave Alhreyr, R. M., Caprain,A. S. and Athreya)V R. (1997)A farml beenrccognlzed.Our observationsat a reasonablywell- surveyof Namda!'haTisd Rcscrvc,Arunachal Pra.lesh,Indi. walched locality suggestthat Rusty bellied Shorrwing Reportto Orientd Bnd Club. Unpublished. is probably greatly overlooked and ar leasr locally Colla!, N. J., Crosby,M. J. and Staitersfi.ld,A. J. (1994) Atr& to common whe.e its habitat requiremenrsare mer. As uotch 2, E wrld list af te.,,rcd,.'i5. Cambri.lgc: Bndl-if! noted by Crosby (1996) olnitholosicalcoverage ofrhe Crosby,M. (1996)Thearenedbirds in the easdn Hinalayes,Oni easternHimalayas Endemic BirdArea is srillvery much enlatBird Cl,b Bull-2J: 2t 23. in its infancy.Many partsofthercgionhave always been G.inmett, R.,lnskipp, C. and Inskipp,T.(1993) a.idJ a/rre.Ld'i!t difiicult to accessbecause of logistical and political r,r.o,!t,,. London:ChrntopherHelm. reasons.Itis hoped fiar,armed wifi thenew information He h, P ( I 988) Uftle knosn Oricntal bird: Ru$y-bcllied Shotu irs. contained herein, and with the rapidly improvins OrientalBid Crtb Brll.a: t6-r9. Kaul, R,, Raza,R. lnd Kalsi. R. (1995)wildliie *n.lies in nortn- situation on visiting nofih-east India and Myanmar more ea* India U Fcb. 19941.Rcport to P$cr people Uan. Scor Trus, will try to seeko\t Brachtpterlx]ryperlthtu ^nd Jaoraslr Unpublished. other littie known taxa in this excitingregion. Ripl.y, S. D, Saha,S. S. and Beehler,B. M. (1991) Notes on birds fton the Upper Noa Dihins. Arunaclal Pradcsh,northeasern I"dia. B"ll.Btu. an. Chtb\rr: t9-2a. The authorsarc s.eadyi.debled to SelgeHoste for kindl,\'prepar- SBtersneld,A.J., Crosby,M.J., Lons,A.J. andwese,D C. (19S8) I,'I.I ins the sonasrans.Many rfunks alsogo to RafDrijve6 for usetul r\d{.;r BrdAt.a otth,Lattt aL t.".lotb. dn.u.\io Jnd o B 6m Dp-.uF-<<{er for ercellenrlomlrnio ! ,or. Canbridse: BirdUle Imernational. WI} ship {!ilc birding India and Nepal in l996.Tin lnskipp provided Sevens,H. (r914) Notes on the bnds ol Upper Assanr,Paft l. t valuablccommcns on r d.afr versbn of the manusclipr. Bo"tbar^"aL HiL Soc.21:2a4-26a. and Srevens,H. (1925) Notes on thc birds of the sikr.im Himalayas, the t Pd.t 5. t, ao,r6dr'I'dr. Ear. Sd..30:152-a19. Sec. fom Har Iwein Maurc, Brouuerijstraat 29, B 9160 Lokeren, Belg;at1 Eduad Wrcrulsse,lvijzemanstruat 5, B-9AAA Gent, Beleiunl ^pa TA] r:Pr gfa(

MC Cornrnon Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula: plul a new species forThailand ftor visi IWEIN MAURO

On 7 January 1997 I was birding, togerherwith Chancesaw the bird larerrharday and fortunatelytook DominiqDeVelbelen,alongrheexposedsandybanksof the trouble to put the word our so that it waslater seen the Mekongriver ar ChiangSaen,Chiang Rai Province, by quile a few Thai birdwatchers.L. Bruce Kekule Thailand, primarily in searchof Long-billed Plover managedto obtain somegood photographsofrhe bird Chara.rius?bcid\s. F^irly largenumbers of Little Ringed on 17 Januaryand on 28 Januaryit wasseen by Kanr Ploversr- h ral, u" dtbtu"wer e pre\enrand my Jnertion Ratanajun(P D. Roundm l"r.). This represenisthe firsr wassoon drawn to an obviouslyiarger plover associating recordever of Common Rinsed PloverforThailand. wirh these.Unfortunately, this bird took to the wing Basedon my own field notes made on 07 January beforeI evenhad a chanceto rake a good look at it. 1997, slidestaken by LBK on 17 January 1S97 and However,whendoins so,it revealeda promin€ntbroad soundrecordings obtainedbyRDand DV on 07January wing-barand repeatedlyuttered a familiarsofr, mellow 1S97,I compiledthe followingdescdprion. poo-ip,and I immediatelyidentified ir as a Common RingedPlover C&arddli&s r,at &/a.I quickly informed SIZE and STRUCTURE A small-sizedftough robust, DV and together we soon relocated rh€ bird and stockyCrarddliirs with rarherlarge square head, short, obrainedexcellenr view. ar clocerange. confi-minc my snaighr, slighdy stubby bill and relatively shon, powerful initial identification.After having obsened the plover legs.In dir€ct comparisonwith Lirtle RingedPlover C. forabout l5 minutesor so.wedecidedto inform others d&ras appearedabout 20% larser, proporrionarely aboutits presenceas w€ meanwhiierealized this species shorrsrand Lhicker b.lled.,horrer legged and noriLeably wasnot treatedin Boonsongand Round (19Sl). Shortly morerdumpyand por-beitreawrrtr tiis ancnuare,lrear- afterwards we retumed to the spot, togetler with Raf end. In flight showednoticeably longer wings and rail, D jvers, and easilyrelocated rhe bird, now enabling resulting in more purposeful flight action. P.imary sound recordingsof the flight calls ro be made. Jim projection short, encompassingabout 20% of visible PI CI R? 6 (2000) lorklail l6 (2000) SHORT NOTES t19

tertial length with rwo primary tips extending beyond longesttertial.Wingtip falling slightly beyond tail.Tail h\ HEAD and NECK Chin, throat and neck whjrish, ,$ BirdLife extendingin obvjoussharply defined collar overnape. Broadbrownish chest-band washed wilh blackish, sharplydemarcated andbroadestin the cenrreofbreasr, graduallynarrowing and lessconspicuously continuing Figure 1. Sonagramof rhe callsof Common RinsedPloeer overlower nape. Foreheadand lores pale off-white, Chdrudrilshiari ula.07 Itnudry 1997,Chiang Saen, Chiang mergingabovc eyc with obvious sharply demarcated Rai Provioce,Thailand(R. Dijvers). broadsupercilium reaching tie end ofthe ear-covcrts. Crown,ear covertsand cheeksolive-brown with somc blackishfeathering becoming apparcnt on front. Eye- ringdarkish. BARE PARTS Bill nosily black with small ill defined yellowish oranse area restricted to base of lolver UPPERPARTSUniformly olive-brown. mandible. Legs and fect brisll orange.Iris black.

.i.(r998) Lr|.IDERPARISUniformly whitish. VOICE FrequenrlyLrrrered and hrghl) dir'rncr\e: coniact and alarm call can be transcribed as a sofr, VING Conspicuouswing-bar, broadest berween P8-5 mellow djsyllabicroo-?p or bo-lde,with emphasis on the andsradually narrowins inwards and continuing over second note. Vhen excited or repeatedly flushed a drewhole lensth ofsecondaries.Primaries darkbrown. shortened and higher pitched monosyllabic .led was Secondariesa shade palcr brown with buffish tips usually given (seeFisure 1)- formingvcry inconspicuoustrailing edgeto inner arm. Semipalnated Plover Cl?aradriut which is Hand sener,ll) un'"orrll dark brosn. Upper $irs senipalt'rct s, covertspaler oljve brownfringed buffish, hence formins not yet known from the Oriental resion or Eastern a palepanel on lving. Palearcric, though perhaps of likely future occurrence rhere, is rhe only speciespossibly confusable with TAIL Generallyolive-brown becoming darker rowards Common Ringed Plover. Although rhe presence or tip,resulting in indisrinctdarker subrerminal band, and absence of di:gnostic toe webbing between the inner graduailycompletely whire latemlly. dnd middle roe could nor be e.r*blr.heowrh cerrarnry in Lhe field, this speciescan reliably be ruled out by a MOULI andV/EARActivebody moult to first summer combination ol chiefly volce, bill structure and plumagewith blackishfeathering breaking through on prominence of wing-bar, as well as more subde jn general pans front and rhroughout chestband. Plumaeesenerally ditTerences build and bare coloration, modemtelyworn thoush buffish fringes still clearly which all clearly point in favov ot C. hiaticula (Cramp visibleon unmoultedjuvenile upper lvins coverts. and Simmons 19A3;Prater ct d|.1917). On the basis of dre worn, retained juvenile upper wins coverts the Chiang Saen plover can be aged as a second calendar year. During its lengthy sray this individual was progressing in activc body mouh to frrsl

Two raccs of Common Rinsed Plover are currently iekule widely being recognized, thougi their relationships and Lebird disringuishing features still remain poorly understood. ' Kanr Nominare imrrc"1a occurs through much ofnorth-sest refirsr Europefrom souihern Scandinavia and rhe Balric sourh rnd. to France and alsolceland, Spirzbergen,Greenland and the eastern coasts of Ellesmere and Bafiln Islands in 7 and Canada, whereas turd,?c inhabiB rhe coasr and tundra ofLapland and Russia(Cramp and Simmons 1983). Hence, on seosraphical srounds the Chiang Saen bird most likely belongs to rrr?d/ad,though due to the variability wirhin borh tar(ano single feature conclusively allows subspecilic identifi cation. This record constitutes the first for Thailand, ver c' although the species'saddition to theThai list comes as lately no surprise and it sas listed as a likcly candidatc for :eably futurc vasrancy by Boonsons and Round (199 t). It is interesting to note that a better awarenessamongThai c &il, birdwatchers ofthe species'spotential occurrence and identification has already resulred in severalsubsequenr 'isible Plate 1. Secondcalcndar ycar Common RinsedPloler record. ar rhe.ame localiryThe.e are one winreflng Charultiushiafttla,l7 January1997, Chiang SacDj Chians from 29 December 1997 to ar least 27 February 1998 Rai Pfovince,Tbailand(L. B. Kekule). (K. Sukhumalind and A. Pierce)t two reported on 16 180 SHORT NOTES Forkrail 16 (2000)

April 1998 (S.Tandradapiiak); and a sinslebird on 7 Thailandin t997.I anraho much indebtedto SerseHo$e for kindly February 1999 (S. Tanritadapiiak and S. preparingthe sonagromand to Philip D. Roud for providingnq LI,t j!'fhailnd, ThongnakcokegruadjP D. Round r, l'it.). Common iniormation on the occurren.c of Chatadril( hiatic a d( RingedPloverisa generallyveryrarely reported species Finally,l would like to thankJim Chancefor generoushospnalty { Chians SaenCues Holse and for takins the trouble ro spleadtn rhroughout South-EastAsia. In Myanmar it is kflosn ness on the bnd\ presencehence allo{ins maDy residentThai from a single observationof a group of four at birdwatchels to make for the fist tine acquainranccwirh rnig and rr Maunsdaw, north Arakan in April 1944 (Smythies rhrougho-t.lc Orienulrecron rr!e\ encoun.ered'pe.ie. 1986).Theleare two recordsflom PeninsularMalaysia: 25 March 198.1,near Georgetown,Penang Isiand and Sulaw 6 February 1988, Kuala Selansor (Wells 1999). REFERENCES possib However,the faci that the speciesoccurs annually in Sinsapore, where an averaseof l-4 individuals are BoonsonALetasul and Roun{P. D. (199\) A Eiae ro thebnds ol diagnt repofiedper m.grafionsei\on. "trongly sugge.r, r r. ?},,i',,1. BangkokrSaha Krn Bhacr. facial possiblygreatly overlooked and almostcertainly not as C..mp. S. rnd Simmons,K. E. L. (.dds.)(r9a3) Thebnds oJ thewr- with ' rare as the few rccordsindicate. .r, PdLa'"rt,3. Oxford: Oxford Univdsity Prcs. differr Hc.r!, P (1996) Bird{atchins arcn:Chiang Sacn noihcrn Tbai- l^nd. Ot;trtdl Binl ChtbBull.23:24-26. Prate.,A. Marchant, H and Vuorincn, ( I 977) Grri?erd rr, in RN I rmmosrg.ateful roL. BruceKekulelor readilyaUdwingme to use J., J. J. itl.trilLdtn, and al Holdrdn a,./r,r. BTO Guidc 17.Ting, feath( his slidesboth ro supplememrle desc.ipiiodand fo. publication. 4en1s Many rh,nk! also go to Rla Drijvds and Dominiquc Vcrbclcn for d€spl' Snythirs, B E (1936) Ir' 6t "/axf,,d. Slsscxi Nim.od Pre$, p.oliding $und recordingsofrhe bird i. qre$ion and lor theire!- distin Vclrs, D. R. ( I 9 99) ?t r 6t?J thel\di-]l1alaj PeD\uta, 1, I.ondoa: cellenrcompa.y rogethersith Bram Demeulemeeste.w]1enbirdi.g d identi

this s Iue;n Maun, Brcuwetijstrcat 29, B 9 I 60 Lol?ercn,Belsim Leid(

T Min: Minahassa OwlTyto inexspectata atLore Lindu penir National Park. Sulawesi. Indonesia in Decernber 1998 (Bist

IWEIN MAURO and RAF DRUVERS Nati

distl On l6 Decemberl998 rhe aurhorsobserved and sound featuringa relativelylarge, rounded head, a largewell- record€d Minahassa Owl Tlto inetspectataat ^boUI 1,7 oo definedheart shapedfacial disc, small eyes, a short and m elevationin roadsideprimary lower montaneforesr hookedbill, long roundedwings, shon squaretail and near Danau (= Lake) Tambins, Lore Lindu National long, powedul legswirh complerelyfearhercd rarsi and Park,north centralSulawesi, Indonesia. It wasinitiaiiy stronafeet. Obviously much smaller(about one third), picked up by its inflequendy uttered, single hoarse, plumper, lessattenuated and larger headedthan -t hissingshriek, typical of the genus,drougl stdkingly Sulawesi Owl T rasenberqii(not seen in direct ,l different from dlat of Sulawcsi Owl T. rcsenbersii.In responseto tape playbackof its sound-recorded terdtorial call,thebird nearlyimmediatelyflew into thc HEAD & NECK hrge hearFshapedfaciai disc dark 1 lower crown ofa tall deadforest rree,where it perched ru.ry brown.rather sharply demar.ated by exrenqive immobile in the iorch beam lor aboul l0 minures, dark blackishboder, broadestbelow and on sides.Resr Ficr prcvidingexcellent views down to about 50 m. Despite of headdark extensivelyblotchedblackish Owl soldenbrown, Dan considerableefforts we failed to relocatethe species on the crown,which formed the darkestpart ofthe head. Sula during subsequentvisirs to the area.Our observation representsthe secondrecord fo. Lore Undu National UPPERPARTSUniformly da.k soldenbrown. ,l Parkard the fiIst documenteddefinitefietd observalion sir(e l oJo of thi, vi_rurllyunknown )pe.ies. UNDERPARTS Chestlvhiiish. Brcast,abdomen and On the basis of field notes and sound lecordinss flanksbufEsh, sparsely patternedwith dark b.own spotsJ takenor l6 December1998 we compileddre following especiaUyobvious towards the centre of the belly. description.A copy of the recordingsresides at the Featheringof tibia andtarsusand ventral area uniformly British LibraryNational SoundArchive,Wildlife Section, off-white. London. 7:!tl BARE PARIS Uppermandibleenrirely yellowish. Feet SIZE & STRUCTURE A medium-sized,noriceably brownish srey. Eyesblack, slowins yellowish pink in the (I. l compact and stocky though otherwise typical Ato, spotlighr.