18 Indian Birds Vol. 17 No. 1 (Publ. 29 March 2021)

Crab Apples (Malus), and open cereal fields (Clement 2020). However, based on sight records of two females and one male from Jakkar, eastern Bhutan (Clements 1992), the species was included in the bird list of the Indian Subcontinent (Praveen et al. 2017), and its occurrence extended outside China. It has been hypothesised that the Three-banded Rosefinch could possibly be found in Arunachal Pradesh (Rasmussen & Anderton 2012; Praveen et al. 2017), since it is a winter visitor to the south-eastern part of Tibet. We present here with the photographic documentation (1 & 2) of the species and validate its occurrence in Arunachal Pradesh. This could also, perhaps, be the first documentation of the species from India. The breeding season, and wintering range of the Three-

banded Rosefinch in China is known, however, information on its 27. The larger female Pallas’s Fish Eagle is seen taking off; it landed next to the male (t=0s) breeding behaviour and biology is anecdotal, because of its scarce ecological data (Martens & Trautmann 2008). It is noteworthy that we photographed the Three-banded Rosefinch at 3,852 m asl, which is higher than its earlier elevational records, which might help furthering our understand of the ecology of the species in Arunachal Pradesh. More ecological studies of the species are required in the future as it may be using the temperate coniferous forest of Arunachal Pradesh as a passage to migrate from China to Bhutan, thereby making it a potential corridor for the species. The authors wish to acknowledge ORACLE for sponsoring, and CAF-India for facilitating the support for this project. We are indebted to the State Forest Department of Arunachal Pradesh for providing necessary permission to carry out the field work. We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer who helped us improve the manuscript significantly. We would also like to thank Baleshore 28. The male reacts by calling, and walking towards the female with its open wings raised Thapa, our diver and field assistant, for his support in the fieldwork. above its body (t=12s).

References Clement, P., 2020. Three-banded Rosefinch (Carpodacus trifasciatus), version 1.0. In: Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Clements, F. A., 1992. Recent records of birds from Bhutan. Forktail 7 (June): 57–73. Martens, J., & Trautmann, S., 2008. Carpodacus trifasciatus J. Verreaux, 1870 - Bindengimpel. In: Martens, J., & Sun, Y.-H., (eds.) Atlas der Verbreitung paläarktischer Vögel. 21. LieferungPublisher: Stresemann-Gesellschaft für paläarktische Avifaunistik. [Atlas of the Distribution of Palaearctic Birds. 21.] Praveen J., Jayapal, R., Inskipp, T., Warakagoda, D., Thompson, P. M., Anderson, R. C., & Pittie, A., 2017. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent: Species not recorded from India. Indian BIRDS 13 (4): 93–101. Rasmussen, P. C., & Anderton, J. C., 2012. Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. 2 vols. Pp. 1–378; 1–683. 29. Both the birds called simultaneously for two to three seconds (t=19s). – Atharva Singh, Himadri Sekhar Mondal & Girish Jathar Atharva Singh. E-mail: [email protected]; Himadri Sekhar Mondal. E-mail: [email protected]; Girish Jathar. E-mail: [email protected] [Corresponding author] All: Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, Mumbai 411001, Maharashtra, India

Pallas’s Fish Eagle Haliaeetus leucoryphus copulating on the banks of the Ram Ganga A pair of Pallas’s Fish Eagles Haliaeetus leucoryphus was seen in Jim Corbett National Park’s Dhikala Zone, on the banks of the

Ram Ganga (29.53°N, 78.77°E) on 08 February 2020 at 0945 All: Amith Rao h. When they were seen together, it was easy to spot the larger female as it flew above the male and landedc .1.5 m from the male. The photographs [27–30], and their captions capture the behaviour of the pair till they copulated (09:44:28 h–09:45:07 h). 30. The female bends and allows the male to mount and copulate (t=35s). Correspondence 19

Copulation lasted eight seconds. During this time, both birds River. The bird was initially identified by its typical calls. Later it called. After mating, the birds sat next to each other for two was confirmed based on dark streakings on underparts, white minutes before they took off. throat and breast, and rufous undertail coverts. The habitat where A perusal of the literature indicates that displays and copulation we saw bird had tall reeds along the water body [32], distributed of Pallas’s Fish Eagle have not been well documented (Ferguson- in an area of about an hectare. Later, Sheila Castelino and Esha Lees & Christie 2001; Orta et al. 2020). There are nine other Munshi also photographed the bird on 16 February, and 20 species of Haliaeetus in the world, and we reviewed literature and February 2020, respectively. Recently, Amit Sharma reported six online videos of these species (Anonymous 2020a; Anonymous birds at the same spot on 29 June 2020. 2020b). Predominantly, these birds copulate in the nest, or in a tree in which nests are built. Copulation is often preceded by an aerial display. The pre-copulation behaviour of the White-bellied Sea-Eagle H. leoucogaster included behaviour in which the birds soared and duetted on a lakeside tree 600 m from the nest (Debus 2008). The pair flew in tandem and copulated twice, for five, and seven seconds. In case of Bald EaglesH. Ieucocephalus all records documented them mating on a tree near the nest (Anonymous 2014; Anonymous 2020c), or in the nesting tree (Kron 2017). A video footage of the African Fish Eagle H. vocifer showed them mating on the ground, near a waterbody where their copulation behaviour was similarly initiated (Rudman 2016; Beech 2018). In these sequences, the birds were calling loudly many times before the female bowed and allowed the male to 31. Rufous-vented Grass Babbler spotted at Ottu Lake, Sirsa, Haryana. November 2020. land above it and copulate. We thank our drivers, Hemu Negi, and Nasir for their skilful driving and parking at a safe distance without disturbing the birds.

References Anonymous. 2014. Bald Eagle mating on sky [sic.]. Website URL: https://youtu.be/ BXbn8-ThZmk. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Anonymous. 2020a. Bald Eagles nesting season—a review of dates and events. Website URL: https://hancockwildlife.org/hancock-wildlife-reference/bald-eagle-biology/ K Goyal Sanjeev Both: bald-eagle-nesting-season/. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Anonymous. 2020b. National Eagle Centre. Website URL: https://www. nationaleaglecenter.org/eagle-nesting-young/. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Anonymous. 2020c. Website URL: https://www.raptorresource.org/2020/02/06/ courtship-copulation-and-other-things-romantic/. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Beech, A., African Fish Eagles mating. Africa Watering Hole cam. 25 March 2018. 32. Habitat of Rufous-vented Grass Babbler. Website URL: https://youtu.be/58gu92TaBHE. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Debus, S. J. S., 2008. Biology and diet of the White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster breeding in Northern Inland New South Wales. Australian Field The Rufous-vented Grass Babbler is classified as Near Ornithology 25: 165–193. [Accessed 15 March 2020.] Threatened (BirdLife International 2020), and is endemic to the Ferguson-Lees, J., & Christie, D. A., 2001. Raptors of the world. 1st ed. London: Indus Valley in Pakistan and adjacent areas in north-western India Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–992. along river banks in Punjab and, sporadically, eastwards to Delhi; Kron, T., 2017. Washington, DC Eagles 2.1.17 Liberty & Justice Mating on the nest. Website URL: https://youtu.be/DCbTRt_iJHA. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] a disjunct subspecificnepalicola population is found in the south- Orta, J., Christie, D. A., Kirwan, G. M., & Sharpe, C. J., 2020. Pallas’s Fish- eastern terai region of Nepal (Madge 2020; Rahmani 2012). It Eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus), version 1.0. In: Birds of the World (J. del is described as uncommon from Punjab (Grimmett & Inskipp Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, & E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab 2003). Vyas (2019) included it as an unverifiable report from of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY USA. Website URL: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow. Delhi, based on the records provided in Ganguly (1975). Islam pafeag1.01. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] & Rahmani (2004: 419) mentioned that Kalsi (1998) reported Rudman, L., 2016. African Fish eagles calling & mating. Website URL: https://youtu. it from Kalesar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kurukshetra, Haryana, but be/67CDeatG_sA. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] – Amith Rao & Balakrishna Kulkarni followed S. C. Sharma in assessing it a case of misidentification. Amith Rao, # 60 Eureka Colony, Keshwapur Kusugal Road, Hubli 580023, Karnataka, India. They subsequently removed it from the Kalesar list (Islam & Balakrishna Kulkarni 201 Mahalaxmi Elegance, Vidyagiri layout, Shirur Park, Hubli, Karnataka, Rahmani 2016). It was presumably reported from Ottu Lake in India. E-mail: [email protected] October 2003, but no photographs could be taken (Rahmani 2012). Kalsi et al. (2019) listed it as unconfirmed from Haryana. Rediscovery of Rufous-vented Grass Babbler Laticilla The only prior definitive report, from the state of Haryana, are the burnesii in Haryana and its distribution status in India specimens collected by Walter Koelz in 1933 from Sirsa (UMMZ On 20 October 2019, we photographed a Rufous-vented Grass #80762) and Parwali (= Pirawali) in Hissar District (UMMZ Babbler Laticilla burnesii [31] in the western part of Haryana at #80763-68, 80839; Website URL: http://portal.vertnet.org/sea Ottu Barrage (29.50°N, 74.92°E) near Sirsa, on the Ghaggar rch?q=Laticilla+burnesii+india).