Noteworthy Records from Virajpet, Kodagu District
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Correspondence 119 Kemp, A. C., & Boesman, P., 2018. Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D. A., & de Juana, E., (eds.). Handbook Correspondence of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (Accessed from https:// www.hbw.com/node/55904 on 13 May 2018). Oriental Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris hunts Poonswad, P., Tsuji, A., & Ngampongsai, C., 1986. A comparative ecological study of an adult Common Myna Acridotheres tristis four sympatric hornbills (Family Bucerotidae) in Thailand. Acta XIX Congressus Internationalis Ornthologici. Vol. II: June 22–29, 1986, Ottawa, Canada. University The Oriental Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris is a frequent of Ottawa Press. visitor to the city of Dehradun (30.3165°N, 78.0322°E), Primrose, A. M., 1921. Notes on the “Habits of Anthracoceros albirostris, the Indo- Uttarakhand, which is surrounded by moist deciduous forest. In Burmese Pied Hornbill, in confinement.” Journal of the Bombay Natural History large campuses with good green cover, like the Forest Research Society 27 (4): 950–951. Institute (henceforth, FRI) and the Wildlife Institute of India, a few – Naman Goyal & Akanksha Saxena pairs have been recorded as year-round residents. Wildlife Institute of India, PO Box 18 Chandrabani, Dehradun 248001, Uttarakhand, India. E-mail: [email protected] On 01 June 2013 at 1500 hrs we saw a flock of adult Common Mynas Acridotheres tristis perching on a sandalwood Santalum album tree in the FRI campus. Shortly, a single male Noteworthy records from Virajpet, Kodagu District, Oriental Pied Hornbill flew into the flock, grabbed a myna by its Karnataka neck, and carried it off to another tree. It held the dead myna in This note describes four interesting photographic records, made its beak, tossing it and catching it, perhaps trying to align the bird in February–March 2018, from the outskirts of Virajpet (12.18°N, properly to eat it. This method of feeding was similar to the one 75.78°E), Kodagu District, Karnataka. described by Ali & Ripley (1987) for the Malabar Pied Hornbill A. malabaricus. It struggled with the myna for sometime, but Lesser Florican Sypheotides indicus: A female was photographed couldn’t balance it properly, probably due to the weight of the sitting in a grassy field, and then in flight [117], on 22 February dead bird in its beak [116]. Eventually, it gave up, and dropping 2018. BM had seen and photographed this species in the the myna to the ground, flew off. same area six years ago, on 19 March 2012 (Monnappa 2012). There are no other reports from the district (Betts 1951, 1952; Narasimhan 2004; Narasimhan pers. comm.). The most recent record from southern Karnataka was from Bengaluru District in 2012 (Raghavendra 2012). Bishan CMBishan 117. Lesser Florican. Western Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus: A dark morph/ Akanksha Saxena melanistic bird, probably a male, based on smaller size, was seen 116 . The male Oriental Pied Hornbill with the Common Myna on 24 February and photographed [118] on 26 and 27 February 2018. This is a colour aberration, which is occasionally reported The Oriental Pied Hornbill is primarily a frugivore, feeding on wild for both sexes of this species, including juveniles (Naoroji 2006; berries, figs, and drupes, apart from various insects, centipedes, Orta et al. 2018), and was also photographed recently in Kole millipedes, scorpions, spiders, snails, earthworms, and lizards. It Wetlands, Kerala (Nair 2018, George 2018) on 25 February—just is also known to occasionally hawk animals in flight, take live fish a day after our sighting. from shallow pools, and feed on reptiles, small birds and nestlings (Primrose 1921; Baker 1927; Ali & Ripley 1987; Poonswad et al. 1986; Arora 2013; Kemp & Boesman 2018). This instance of it predating on a healthy adult myna seems noteworthy. We would like to thank all our colleagues at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, in motivating us to write this note. References Ali, S., & Ripley, S. D., 1987. Compact handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan together with those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. 2nd ed. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. i–xlii, 1 l., 1–737, 52 ll. Arora, G., 2013. Oriental Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris albirostris —Male with Bishan CMBishan prey. Website URL: http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=330&Bird_ Image_ID=74933&p=13. [Accessed on 13 May 2017.] Baker, E. C. S., 1927. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Birds. 2nd ed. London: Taylor and Francis. Vol. IV of 8 vols. Pp. i–xxiv, 1–471. 118 . Western Marsh Harrier. 120 Indian BIRDS VOL. 14 NO. 4 (PUBL. 23 OCTOBER 2018) Bristled Grassbird Chaetornis striata: A pair of Grassbirds was George, A., 2018. Website URL: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S43199767. [Accessed seen on 24 February 2018, photographed [119] on 26 February, on 13 August 2018.] and seen on the subsequent day as well. This adds to the recent George, P. J., 2015. Chestnut-eared Bunting Emberiza fucata from Ezhumaanthuruthu, Kuttanad Wetlands, Kottayam District. Malabar Trogon 13 (1): 34–35. knowledge on its wintering status in Karnataka. Other records Harshith, J. V., 2016. Website URL: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S33278635. are from Dakshin Kannada (Harshith 2016; Kamath 2016; [Accessed on 13 August 2018.] Viswanathan 2017), Mysuru (Vijayalakshmi 2016), and Belgaum Kamath, R., 2016. Website URL: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S33148312. [Accessed (Sant 2017). on 13 August 2018.] Lakshmi, V., 2015. Website URL: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S21432671. [Accessed on 13 August 2018.] Monnappa, B., 2012. Website URL: https://www.indianaturewatch.net/displayimage. php?id=317526. [Accessed on 14 August 2018.] Nair. A. 2018. Website URL: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S43311515. [Accessed on 13 August 2018.] Naoroji, R., 2006. Birds of prey of the Indian Subcontinent. Reprint ed. New Delhi: Om Books International. Pp. 1–692. Narasimhan, S. V., 2004. Feathered jewels of Coorg. 1st ed. Madikeri, India: Coorg Wildlife Society. Pp. 1–192. Orta, J., Boesman, P., Marks, J. S., Garcia, E. F. J., & Kirwan, G. M., 2018. Western Marsh- harrier (Circus aeruginosus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D. A., & de Juana, E., (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Bishan CMBishan Barcelona. Website URL: https://www.hbw.com/node/53021. [Accessed on 13 119. Bristled Grassbird. August 2018.] Praveen J., Subramanya, S., & Raj, V. M., 2016. A checklist of the birds of Karnataka. Indian BIRDS 12 (4&5): 89–118. Chestnut-eared Bunting Emberiza fucata: A male, in non- Raghavendra, M., 2012. Occurrence of Lesser Florican Sypheotides indica in Bangalore, breeding plumage, was photographed [120] on 17 March 2018. Karnataka, India. Indian BIRDS 7 (5): 140–142. The bold dark striations on the buffy (vs chestnut) flanks indicate Rasmussen, P. C., & Anderton, J. C., 2012. Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide: a wintering E. f. kuatunensis of north-eastern India, rather than the attributes and status. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian western Himalayan E. f. arcuate (Rasmussen & Anderton 2012). Institution and Lynx Edicions. Vol. 2 of 2 vols. Pp. 1–683. Chestnut-eared Bunting is not known south of Rajasthan (Sangha Sangha, H. S., Singh, S., & Garg, S., 2016. Chestnut-eared Bunting Emberiza fucata wintering in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Indian BIRDS 11 (1): 26–27. et al. 2016) except for an isolated record from Alappuzha District, Sant, N., 2017. Snapshot Sightings: Bristled Grassbird from Belgaum, Karnataka. Indian Kerala, in March 2015 (George 2015). The latter report was not BIRDS 13 (6): 168A. considered for the state checklist of Kerala, as its provenance Viswanathan, A., 2017. Website URL: https://ebird.org/india/view/checklist/S40877077. could not be established; buntings are traded in large numbers [Accessed on 13 August 2018.] and it was suspected that the individual could have also been – Bishan C. Monnappa & Santhosh Kumar P. an escapee. Another possibility, considered for not including it Bishan C. Monnappa, PNM Hospital, Gonikoppal, Kodagu 571213, Karnataka, India. E-mail: [email protected] then, was the behaviour of reverse migration, where some birds Santhosh Kumar P., Boregowda Complex, Virajpet 571218, deviate 180 degrees from their normal migratory route, and Karnataka, India. E-mail: [email protected] land at a distant site exactly in the opposite direction. These two March records from southern India indicate a possible straggling Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus in behaviour of this species, in spring, which might bring some disoriented individuals as far as southern India. This is an addition Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu to the list of birds of Karnataka (Praveen et al. 2016). I frequently birdwatch at Koltheri Lake (10.96°N, 76.74°E), near Semmedu village, in the Velliangiri foothills, Coimbatore District, as I live near it. On 28 November 2017, I visited the lake at 1130 hrs. It had been de-silted lately and the water level kept high, as a result of which, the numbers of waders and other waterbirds was low. While walking along the embankment, towards the centre of the lake, I saw a rather different looking bird taking off and circling the lake before landing on the other end of the lake. In flight, I noticed that it had a white underbelly and a peculiarly shaped head, and bill; which made me I ruled out the Indian Spot-billed Duck Anas poecilorhyncha, or a wader. Luckily, after some time, the bird came close to my end of the lake and I could take its photograph, using my binoculars as a tele-lens. Bishan CMBishan The images were sent to Pramod Padmanabhan at the Sálim 120. Chestnut-eared Bunting. Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), and to other birding friends.