Indian BIRDS | Vol. 7 No. 2 Vol. 7No.2 Vol. Adjutant-Storks inBihar Birds inNainitalDistrict Shortwings &SkyIslands Niranjan Sant Common Kestrel Indian BIRDS Contents www.indianbirds.in Vol. 7 Nos. 2 Date of Publication: 15 October 2011 30 A view from the past: shortwings and sky islands of the Western Ghats ISSN 0973-1407 V. V. Robin, A. Sinha & U. Ramakrishnan Editor Emeritus: Zafar Futehally Editor: Aasheesh Pittie 33 Birds of three different forest habitats in Nainital district (Western Himalaya), Uttarakhand, India [email protected] K. Joshi & D. Bhatt Associate Editor: V. Santharam Editorial Board 38 Distribution, and potential breeding records, of Lesser- and Greater- Maan Barua, Anwaruddin Choudhury Adjutant-Stork in Bihar, India Bill Harvey, Farah Ishtiaq, Rajah Jayapal D. N. Choudhary, J. Mandal & R. Rohitashwa Madhusudan Katti, R. Suresh Kumar Taej Mundkur, Rishad Naoroji, Suhel Quader 40 High density nesting of White-Bellied Sea-Eagles on Netrani Island, Harkirat Singh Sangha, C. Sashikumar Karnataka S. Subramanya, K. S. Gopi Sundar S. Pande, N. Sant, S. Pednekar, N. Sakhdeo & A. Mahabal Contributing Editors Praveen J., Ragupathy Kannan, Lavkumar Khachar 44 Additions to the birds of Goa, India Contributing Photographers P. Lad & P. Rangnekar Clement Francis, Ramki Sreenivasan 45 The status and distribution of Amur Falcon in Gujarat, India Layout & Cover Design: K. Jayaram P. Ganpule Office: P. Rambabu 47 Spotted Redshank catching fish in association with Great White Pelican New Ornis Foundation in Rajasthan H. Singh Sangha, S. Kumar & Divyabhanusinh Registration No. 314/2004 Trustees 48 Wryneck feeding on bird in Sundarbans, West Bengal, India Zafar Futehally, Aasheesh Pittie N. Vikas Madhav & J. R. Victor V. Santharam, PhD., Rishad Naoroji Taej Mundkur, PhD., S. Subramanya, PhD. 49 Unusual nesting site of the Red-wattled Lapwing Suhel Quader, PhD. H. Singh Sangha Aims & Objectives • To publish a newsletter that will provide a platform to 50 Western Crowned Warbler in Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary birdwatchers for publishing notes and observations H. Singh Sangha & G. Sagar Bhardwaj primarily on birds of South Asia. • To promote awareness of birdwatching amongst the 51 Dusky striped squirrel as a part of mixed-species bird flocks general public. R. Vivek, Prerna R. Agarwal & R. Sreekar • To establish and maintain links/liaison with other associations or organized bodies in India or abroad 52 Rose-ringed Parakeet feeding on an old beehive whose objectives are in keeping with the objectives P. Ganpule of the Trust (i.e. to support amateur birdwatchers with cash / kind for projects in ornithology). 53 Oriental White-eye and Purple Sunbird feeding on yellow oleander Subscription Information J. Turaga Type Annual 3-year 54 The dates of seven new taxa described by W. E. Brooks Individual Rs. 300 Rs. 900 A. Pittie Student (up to 10th) Rs. 200 Rs. 600 Institution Rs. 800 Rs. 2,400 56 Crested Serpent-Eagle preying on termites (Termitidae) in Foreign Individual $30 $90 Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, Gujarat, India Foreign Institution $85 $225 A. Vasava Please make payments favouring New Ornis Foundation 56 Letters to the Editor Add Rs. 75/- for outstation cheques. (No Couriers) For online payment: 56A Review www.indianbirds.in/Subscribe.html Send subscriptions by ordinary post to: Editor, Indian Birds, New Ornis Foundation, P.O. Box # 2, Front Cover: White-bellied Sea-Eagle Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500 034, India. Photographer: Niranjan Sant 30 Indian Birds Vol. 7 No. 2 (Publ. 15 October 2011) A view from the past: shortwings and sky islands of the Western Ghats1 V. V. Robin, Anindya Sinha & Uma Ramakrishnan Robin, V. V., Sinha, A., & Ramakrishnan, U., 2011. A view from the past: shortwings and sky islands of the Western Ghats. Indian BIRDS 7 (2): 30–33. V. V. Robin, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore 560012, Karnataka, India. Email: [email protected] (Corresponding author). Anindya Sinha, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore 560012, Karnataka, India. Uma Ramakrishnan, National Centre for Biological Sciences, G.K.V.K Campus, Bangalore 560096, Karnataka, India. What are sky islands and how do they affect species? sky island system and hopped from one sky island to the other, The Western Ghats in southern India, a 1,600 km mountain eventually colonising all the islands (Fig. 2A). chain that runs along the western coast of the Indian peninsula, 2. The species or its ancestor could have arrived at the foothills is a global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000), and has a of the Western Ghats and gradually moved up the elevational wide gradient of elevations. Most of the southern Western Ghats gradient (Fig. 2B). There is evidence from other sky islands that form highest elevation regions of this mountain range rising well both these models of colonisation are possible for different above 1,500 m (Fig. 1). There are taxa that are often restricted species. If the species had indeed used different sky islands as to, and found only in, these high-elevation regions. For such taxa ‘stepping stones’ to colonise all the Western Ghats sky islands, that never come down to the lower-elevation regions, it is as the populations on the closest islands would be genetically most if they are living on islands, except that these are continental similar while the northernmost and southernmost populations islands. Such islands have been called sky islands that have would be most genetically differentiated. Moreover, in terms of been defined as a, ‘continental or inland terrain made up of a the age of populations, the oldest population would be at one sequence of valleys and mountains,’ (Warshall 1994). The critical end of this linear sky island system while the youngest, at the parameters in these sky islands are the conditions in the valleys other end. It would also be interesting to see how the deep and and the ecological specificity of the sky island species. If the ancient geographical gaps that typically occur along the Western valleys are ecologically hospitable to some sky island species, Ghats affect such species. they may serve as bridges, but if not, they become barriers. The The study species: White-bellied Shortwing Western Ghats in southern India is one of the twenty such sky Brachypteryx major island complexes in the world. We chose to investigate the evolutionary history of the White- Western Ghats sky islands: what can we expect here? bellied Shortwing Brachypteryx major. It is one among the The Western Ghats are a very old mountain system. The largest several threatened, endemic avian species of the Western Ghats geographical gap in this almost-continuous mountain chain is the that has not been studied scientifically in any detail (Robin & c. 40 km wide Palghat Gap, and the smaller Shencottah Gap, Sukumar 2002). Of the six shortwing species in the world, this further south of it. Both these geographical gaps are actually is the only one found in southern India and remains restricted to shear zones that have existed for over 500 million years. Even the Shola forests of the Western Ghats. It has also been recently the topography of the Western Ghats is relatively very old, having added to the Red Data Book as a globally threatened species taken shape about 65 million years ago (Ma) (Gunnell et al. (BirdLife International 2001). The nominate race B. m. major 2003). This clearly indicates that the geographic canvas for a bird is found north of the Palghat Gap while B. m. albiventris, which species was already set even before any passerine bird came mainly differs from it in plumage colouration, is found south of it into this landscape. Passerines are thought to have evolved (Figs. 3, 4). Whether these races interbreed remains an important between 55–60 Ma. The Madrean sky island system in the USA question although a single museum specimen at the Museum and the Eastern Arc sky islands in Africa are perhaps some of the of Natural History, Tring, UK, exhibits plumage characters of both best-studied sky islands. It is evident from studies here that some races (BirdLife International 2001). This is yet another question species are particularly affected by their geographical isolation that can be effectively addressed by a study on the population while some are not. Most of the high-elevation parts of these genetics of this interesting bird species. mountains, however, have been formed approximately over the The shortwing, being a high-elevation species, is particularly last million years making the Western Ghats sky islands some vulnerable to severe fragmentation and loss of habitat. Species of the oldest formations in the subcontinent. This makes the that form small insular populations are particularly vulnerable to Western Ghats landscape an interesting region to examine the extinction and there has thus been concern that this species too effect of geographical isolation on sky island species, many of could be lost forever. It is, therefore, important to unravel the which are endemic to these mountains. genetic connectivity between such populations of the species in There are clearly two major ways that species could colonise order to focus research and conservation efforts in a way that would and occupy these sky islands, considering that the islands existed allow us to implement better-informed adaptive management before the birds came. measures for the species in the foreseeable future. 1. The species or its ancestor arrived at one end of this linear 1 This note was prepared on invitation for Indian BIRDS to summarise for readers the author’s findings published in the online journal, PLoS ONE (Robin, et al. 2010) Robin et al.: Shortwings and Sky Islands 31 because of different dispersal patterns between males and females. Hence, we also sequenced a nuclear marker to counter this possible effect of differential sex.