Red-Romped Swallows in North Queensland
VOL. 10 (8) DECEMBER 1984 251
Red-romped Swallows in North Queensland
By JOHN SQUIRE, Black Mountain Road, Kuranda, Queensland 4872
Red-rumped Swallows were first noted by Mr and Mrs A C. Magarry, Mr J. Crowhurst, my wife and myself on 12 February 1983, over a roadside swampy area between the Mossman-Daintree road and the Daintree River ferry, in north Queensland. A hundred or so Tree Martins Cecropis nigricans were feeding over the area and although we were not paying much attention to them, it soon became apparent that among the Martins were some red romped birds. On closer examination of these birds in flight, it could be seen that they were streaked underneath, very black under the tail, and were larger and darker than the Tree Martins, with a noticeably greater wing-span. Between periods of feeding, the birds rested on overhead powerlines about seven metres from the ground, with Tree Martins and a few Fairy Martins Cecropis ariel. The following description was made. Upperparts: crown to below eye, centre of nape, back, upper-wing and tail blue-black; rump rufous; underparts: whitish with fine horizontal dark streaks on the cheeks and heavier vertical streaking elsewhere; sides of neck behind the facial streaking rufous; under-tail coverts black and sharply defined from the white belly; tail more deeply forked than that of the Tree Martins. Two birds had well developed outer tail feathers. With the exception of these two, the folded wings extended beyond the tail when the birds were perched. This would appear to be the first record of the Red-rumped Swallow Hirundo daurica or striolata from Australia. Since the initial sighting, a number of other people have seen the birds, including Hans and Judy Beste and John L. McKean. It would appear that at least nine individual Red-rumped Swallows were present. It might be pertinent to add here that I seem to be the only person specifically to note the black under-tail coverts. Red-rumped Swallows occur in a confusing variety of forms from Morocco through southern Europe and the Near East to the Indian sub-continent, most of China, Japan and south-east Siberia. These are often treated as one species Hirundo daurica, and forms ranging from Assam through South-East Asia and Indonesia to Timor as a second species H striolata. The latter group would seem the most likely to occur in Australia. Red-rumped Swallows have been reported in the literature from the New Guinea region on two occasions (Filewood 1974, Finch 1979). Further records comprise seven birds seen near Port Moresby eight days after our initial Australian sighting (B. W. Finch in litt. to J. L. McKean, 21 February 1982), over 70 birds at Alatau and three birds on Normanby Island in December 1983 (B. W. Finch in litt. to J. L. McKean, 27 December 1983), and c. 20 near Marshall Lagoon from 6-8 January 1984 (S. J. S. Debus, pers. comm.). Debus' annotated field sketch of the latter birds corresponds in all essentials both to AUSTRALIAN 252 SQUIRE BIRD WATCHER the description given above and to details in my field sketch (Figure 1), including the black under-tail coverts. According to B. W. Finch (in litt. to J. L. McKean, 15 March 1983), the name daurica has been used for the published New Guinea sightings because this name was used for both the daurica and striolata groups by King & Dickinson (1975) in their South-East Asian field guide. Many specimens of the race japonica (daurica) group are impossible to distinguish from striolata (M. LeCroy in litt. to J. L. McKean, 23 January 1984), and McKean (pers. comm.) has not been able to find one character by which striolata and daurica can be separated. After comparing our field notes and diagrams, and the slides taken by the Bestes and ourselves, against the characters listed in Table 5 ofVaurie (1951 ), McKean and I independently concluded that the birds were of the daurica group and either nipalensis or erythropygia, which do not seem to be likely possibiiities as visitors to Australasia. At McKean's request, Mary LeCroy of the American Museum of Natural History kindly compared the Bestes' slides against specimens of the various races. While she thought that it was not easy to appraise the streaking from the slides, when she projected them it appeared to her that the bird had a relatively clear throat, i.e. fine streaking and would thus be H daurica. In her opinion, however, the bird was at such a distance that she did not think one could say for sure. She also thought that striolata rather than daurica was the subspecies group to be expected as a vagrant to Australia.
L7~
Figure I. Field sketch of Red-rumped Swallow, north Queensland, l2 February 1983. Drawing hy John Squire VOL. 10 (8) DECEMBER, 1984 Red-rumped Swallows in North Queensland 253
Red-romped Swallow, north Queensland, February 1983. Plate 60 Photo: Hans & Judy Beste
Red-romped Swallow (upper) and Tree Martin (lower), north Queensland, February 1983, showing Swallow's ventral streaking. Plate 61 Photo: Hans & Judy Beste AUSTRALIAN 254 SQUIRE BIRD WATCHER
Despite treatments to the contrary, e.g. Vaurie (1959), Peters (1960), Ali & Ripley ( 1972), Clements (1974), Moroney et al. (197 5) and Walters (1981 ), there is really no good reason for maintaining the daurica and striolata subspecies groups as separate species (J. L. McKean, pers. comm.). In fact, Vaurie's remarks indicate that he kept the forms separate to draw attention to the need for further work on the matter, rather than from any strong belief that the two are separate species. Whatever the taxonomic treatment given to the birds in the future, there is no doubt that a Red-rumped Swallow, be it daurica or striolata, has visited and possibly regularly visits Australia and New Guinea. The balance of evidence at present suggests that it is a form of the daurica group, even though this does not seem likely for geographical reasons. There is also the possibility that the birds visiting Australasia could be originating from hitherto unknown breeding grounds, perhaps even the islands off north east New Guinea.
Acknowledgements I am grateful to B. W. Finch and M. LeCroy for their assistance in compiling this report, and especially to .1. L. McKean who has gone to considerable lengths to consult outside opinion and to elucidate the taxonomy of this group.
References Ali. S. & Ripley, S. D. (1972), Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, 5, Oxford University Press, London. Clements, J. F. (1974), Birds of the World: A Checklist, Two Continents Pub!., New York. Filewood. W. (1974). 'A new bird for Papua New Guinea, Hirundo daurica Linnaeus 1771- the Red-rumped. Daurian or Mosque Swallow', Papua New Guinea Bird Soc. News/. no. 104, 3-4. Finch, B. W. ( 1979), 'Second Australasian record of Red-rumped Swallow Hirundo daurica: Papua New Guinea Bird Soc. News/. no. 151 , 2 and 5. King, B. F. & Dickinson, E. C. (!975), A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia, Collins, London. Moroney. J. 1.. Bock, W. J. & Farrand J. (!975), Reference List of the Birds of the World, Amer. Mus. of N a tural History, New York. Peters, J. L. (!960), Checklist of Birds of the World. 9, Mus. of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge. Vaurie. C. (1951), 'Notes on some Asiatic swallows', Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1529. 27-47. --( 1959), Th e Birds of th e Palaearctic Fauna: Passeriformes, Witherby, London. Walters , M. ( 1981 ), Th e Complete Birds of the World, 3rd edn, David & Charles, London •
BINDING THE AUSTRALIAN BIRD WATCHER The indexes to each volume of The Australian Bird Watcher have been printed in such a way that when the set of index pages is released from the staples in the centre section of the last number for the volume the title page and the general index a re the outer folded sheet. This is designed to be bound at the front of the volume. The species. author and plate indexes can then be bound a t the back without need for separation from each other.