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Newsletter for Ornithologists Vol. 1 No. 4 (July-August 2004) NEWSLETTER FOR ORNITHOLOGISTS Vol. 1 No. 4 July-August 2004 Newsletter for Ornithologists Vol. 1 No. 4 (July-August 2004) READY-RECKONER Internet Resources India Birds: http://www.indiabirds.com/ Bird conservation organisations Birds of Kerala: http://birdskerala.com/ BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY: Honorary Secretary, Hornbill BirdLife International: http://www.birdlife.net/ House, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg, Mumbai 400023, Maharashtra. Indian Jungles: http://www.indianjungles.com/ Website: www.bnhs.org. Email: [email protected]. Publish: Birds of Kolkata: http://www.kolkatabirds.com/ Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society; Hornbill. Contact Sanctuary Asia: http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/ above for: INDIAN BIRD CONSERVATION NETWORK: Publish: Red Data Book: http://www.rdb.or.id/index.html/ Mistnet. ENVIS CENTRE: Publish: Buceros. The Northern India Bird Network: http://www.delhibird.com/ SALIM ALI CENTRE FOR ORNITHOLOGY AND NATURAL Zoological Nomenclature Resource: http://www.zoonomen.net/ HISTORY: Director, Anaikatty P.O., Coimbatore 641108, India. N.C.L. Centre for Biodiversity Informatics: http://www.ncbi.org.in/ Website: www.saconindia.org. Email: [email protected] biota/fauna/ BIRDWATCHERS’ SOCIETY OF ANDHRA PRADESH: Honorary John Penhallurick’s Bird Data Project: http://worldbirdinfo.net/ Secretary, P.O. Box 45, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500034, India. Saving Asia’s threatened birds: Website: www.bsaponline.org. Email: [email protected]. Publish: http://www.birdlife.net/action/science/species/asia_strategy/ Mayura; Pitta. pdfs.html/ MADRAS NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY: Honorary Secretary, No. 8, Janaki Optics: http://www.betterviewdesired.com/ Avenue, Abhirampuram, Chennai 600018, India. Website: www.blackbuck.org. Email: [email protected]. Publish: Library th Blackbuck. Ali, Salim, 2002. The book of Indian birds. 13 revised edition. Mumbai: Bombay Natural History Society. INSTITUTE OF BIRD STUDIES & NATURAL HISTORY: Director, Ali, Salim & S. Dillon Ripley, 2001. Handbook of the birds of India and Rishi Valley, Chittoor District, India 517352. Email: Pakistan, together with those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri [email protected]. Conduct: Home Study Course in Ornithology. Lanka. 10 vols. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ORIENTAL BIRD CLUB: P.O. Box 324, Bedford, MK42 0WG, U.K. Grimmett, Richard, Carol Inskipp and Tim Inskipp, 1998. Birds of the Website: www.orientalbirdclub.org. Publish: Forktail; OBC Bulletin. Indian subcontinent. London: Christopher Helm. WILDLIFE INSTITUTE OF INDIA: Post Bag # 18, Chandrabani, Harrison, John, 1999. A field guide to the birds of Sri Lanka. Oxford: Dehradun 248001, India. Website: www.wii.gov.in. Oxford University Press. WILDLIFE TRUST OF INDIA: Wildlife Trust of India, C-644, New Inskipp, Carol & Tim Inskipp, 1985. A guide to the birds of Nepal. Friends Colony, New Delhi 110065, India. Email: London: Croom Helm. www.wildlifetrustof-india.org. Inskipp, Carol, Tim Inskipp & Richard Grimmett, 1999. Birds of WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE-INDIA: 172-B, Lodi Estate, New Bhutan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Delhi 110003, India. Website: www.wwfindia.org. Kazmierczak, Krys, 2000. A field guide to the birds of India, Sri Lanka, Web-based email groups Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. New Delhi: To join, send email to: Om Book Service. BANGALORE: [email protected] Roberts, T. J. 1991-92. The birds of Pakistan. 2 vols. Karachi: Oxford BOMBAY: [email protected] University Press. DELHI: [email protected] Robson, Craig, 2000. A field guide to the birds of South-East Asia. KERALA: [email protected] London: New Holland. NORTHEAST INDIA: [email protected] ORIENTAL BIRD CLUB: orientalbirding- English and scientific bird names used in Newsletter for [email protected] Ornithologists follow Manakadan, R. & A. Pittie. 2003. Standardised NAT-HISTORY INDIA: [email protected] common and scientific names of the birds of the Indian Subcontinent. WEST BENGAL: [email protected] Newsletter for Birdwatchers 42 (3): i-viii, 1-36. Recommended abbreviation for citation: New. Ornis Newsletter for Ornithologists Vol. 1. No. 4. July-August 2004. Date of publication: 30 August 2004. CONTENTS Editorial. 49 Changes in avifauna over a sixteen-year period in the Pondicherry University Campus. J. Subramanean & Priya Davidar. 50 Aquila eagles in Kerala, India. C. Sashikumar. 53 Indian Blue Robin Luscinia brunnea winters at Chamundi Hill and Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, Mysore, South India. Thejaswi Shivanand & A. Shivaprakash. 54 Discovery of new nesting colonies of Grey Herons in Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra. Sudhakar Kurhade. 57 Recoveries from the Newsletter for Birdwatchers-2. Zafar Futehally. 57 House Crow Corvus splendens preying on live Common Iora Aegithina tiphia. Arunayan Sharma. 58 Recently published. 59 Reviews. 60 Correspondence. 63 Cover: Indian Blue Robin Luscinia brunnea (Photo: Atanu Mondal). Type-setting & Layout: Anwar Hussain. Newsletter for Ornithologists Vol. 1 No. 4 (July-August 2004) 49 Editorial NEWSLETTER Vulture decline and public health concerns FOR ORNITHOLOGISTS Many of us look upon vultures as ugly birds, associated with filth and unhygienic conditions. The sudden and dramatic disappearance of these birds from our countryside Vol. 1 No. 4. July-August 2004. is posing several questions and investigations are on to find out the exact reasons for ISSN 0972-9933 their decline. Even as we discover the causes and take steps to prevent the extinction of URL: www.geocities.com/ashpittie/nlo.html the species in south Asia, we have to be aware of the unpleasant consequences of the Editor Emeritus: Zafar Futehally decimation of their population in our countryside. A recent report in the Guardian # 2205 Oakwood Apartment, Weekly (April 15-21, 2004) warns us of the possible public health hazards posed by the Jakkasandra Layout, Koramangala, loss of vultures. Rotting carcasses of cattle in the countryside are likely to spread 3rd Block, 8th Main, diseases such as anthrax, cause bacterial contamination of water, food poisoning and Bangalore 560034, India. dysentery through flies and also rabies! At one carcass dump in Rajasthan it has been Email: [email protected] noticed that there was a twenty-fold increase in the dog population (from 60 to 1,200!) Editor: Aasheesh Pittie following the decline of vultures. The incidence of rabies is high in our country and P.O. Box # 2, Banjara Hills, dogs are most often (96%) associated with the spread of this scourge. Over 30,000 Hyderabad 500034, India. people in India die (81% of global deaths from rabies) every year from rabies. So what Email: [email protected] are we going to do to contain the increase in dog populations? We are beginning to realize, perhaps belatedly, the valuable role played by vultures in keeping our environment Associate Editor: Dr V. Santharam clean. Institute of Bird Studies & Natural History, Rishi Valley 517352, Chittoor District, The value of checklists Andhra Pradesh, India. The latest Buceros (Vol. 8 Nos. 2&3, May-December 2003), the journal of the Envis Email: [email protected] Center on avian ecology & inland wetlands at Bombay Natural History Society, is a model publication and the Society is to be congratulated for the publication. Anyone Newsletter for Ornithologists who is interested in serious birdwatching must take a look at the pains taken by Anand Publishes notes and observations on birds of Prasad in putting together this “Annotated checklist of the birds of western the Indian region. We welcome articles, papers, annotated checklists, trip reports, Maharashtra”. This publication, running to 174 printed pages, has detailed accounts of notes on the behaviour and biology of one sightings, migration and breeding records from publications since the 1800’s to the or more species, book reviews, audio- present (including several recent unverified Internet reports). From this, the author has recording reviews, letters, announcements, interpreted changes in the status and populations of species and noted conservation notices, news from the birding world, etc. concerns. We certainly could do with more of such exercises from other parts of the Also welcome is material for the cover (art, country. Keeping meticulous records and maintaining databases will certainly help transparencies, photographs) and line drawings for the text pages. Papers should be monitor bird populations. Incidentally I was surprised that a few of my own records that typewritten with double spacing, clearly I happened to share with Anand Prasad through emails based on my lists prepared handwritten, or form part of an email. during the Western Ghats Woodpecker Surveys in 1995-6 turned out to be the only or Please send all material to the Editor at the one of the few records of some species in the state. Had Prasad not contacted me these address given below. Whilst every care is records would have remained in my diaries forever, gathering dust. So please share taken, Newsletter for Ornithologists cannot your notes/publish them so that they serve some useful purpose. be held responsible for accidental loss or damage of any material sent for publication This issue contains an interesting article by C. Sashikumar on recent records of four or for their return whether they are accepted species of Aquila eagles in Kerala. Eagles from this