Correspondence 15

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 . Indian BIRDS 13 (4): 93–101. Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2020. Checklist of the birds of India (v4.0). Website URL: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/. [Date of publication: 07 July 2020.] Praveen J., & Kichloo, M. A., 2020. Birds across the Line of Control: Sole records for the ‘India Checklist’. Indian BIRDS 16 (2): 48–50. Shah, I., 2018. Website URL: https://ebird.org/checklist/S65184874. [Accessed on 29 November 200.] Sharpe, R. B., 1891. Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Mission; Based Upon the Collections and Notes of the Late Ferdinand Stoliczka, Ph.D. Aves. London: Taylor and Francis. Pp. i–xviii, 1–153. Ticehurst, C. B., 1927. The birds of British Baluchistan. Part 2. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 31 (4): 862–881. Unnithan, S., 2005. A catalogue of the birds in the collection of the Bombay Natural 20. History Society - 40. Family: Fringillidae: Finches. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 101 (3): 360–373 (2004). Walton, H. J., 1900. Note on the occurrence of Rhodospiza obsoleta (Licht.) in the Tochi Valley. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal LXIX (Part II No 2): 101–102. Williams, C. H., 1929. Some notes on the birds breeding round Quetta. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 33 (3): 598–613.

– Sanjeev K. Goyal & Vivek Goyal Sanjeev K. Goyal. E-mail: [email protected] Vivek Goyal, Associate Professor, Zoology, Government National College, Sirsa, Haryana, India. E-mail: [email protected] [Corresponding author]

A Japanese Thrush Turdus cardis in , : An addition to South Asian avifauna On 26 December 2020, while birding enroute to Tilam Top

(28.15ºN, 97.02ºE; c.1,200 m asl), Walong, Arunachal Pradesh, Shah Dhyey Both: we encountered a peculiar-looking thrush Turdus sp., feeding along with Alpine Thrushes Zoothera mollissima at 0600 h. 21. The bird had black upperparts, and white lowerparts, with black ‘inverted heart’ like spots on its upper belly and flanks [20, 21]. On further observation, the thrush had a dull yellowish-orange bill. 20, 21. Japanese Thrush in Walong, Arunachal Pradesh. The surrounding habitat was a coniferous forest with small, shady ‘gullies’ into which, hardly any light entered. We concluded from References the above pointers that this was a Japanese Thrush T. cardis—a Collar, N., & Bonan, A., 2017. Japanese Thrush (Turdus cardis). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, species that had not been listed for South Asia (Praveen et al. A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D. A., & de Juana, E., (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the 2020). World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. The Japanese Thrush mainly winters in south-eastern Collar, N., & Bonan, A., 2020. Japanese Thrush (Turdus cardis), version 1.0. In: Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, (including south-eastern Yunnan), Hainan, and northern Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2173/ Indochina (Collar & Bonan 2020). The nearest records of the bow.japthr1.01. sighting of a Japanese Thrush, to the current site are listed in Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2016. A checklist of the birds of India. Indian BIRDS Table 1. The closest report being less than 400 km away. 11 (5&6): 113–172A.

– Dhyey Shah, Ketan Shah & Ravi Mekola Place Country Date Altitude in Aerial dis- Dhyey Shah, 39, Geetanagar Society, Pratapnagar Road, Vadodara 390004, Gujarat, India. m asl tance in km E-mail: [email protected] Ketan Shah, 39, Geetanagar Society, Pratapnagar Road, Vadodara 390004, Gujarat, India. Baihualing, Yunnan China 27 November 2020 1,500 (?) 360 E-mail: [email protected] Ravi Mekola, Kera Ati, , Near Misa Lingi Fair Price Shop, Lower Dibang Valley 792110, Bagan, Mandalay Myanmar 14 February 2018 45–70 800 Arunachal Pradesh, India. E-mail: [email protected]

Kunming, Yunnan China 02 March 2013 1950 (?) 660 Presence of Sichuan Leaf Warblers Phylloscopus forresti in , Arunachal Pradesh The preferred winter habitat of Japanese Thrushes is The known winter range of the Sichuan Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus woodland with cultivated surroundings, lightly wooded areas forresti extends from south-eastern Xizang and southern Sichuan, including urban parks (Collar & Bonan 2020)—in contrast to southwards to eastern Myanmar, north-western Thailand, and the thickly wooded area where we saw it. The Walong area in northern Vietnam (del Hoyo et al. 2020). In Anjaw District, there north-eastern Arunachal Pradesh has shown several affinities to is a high probability of Sichuan Leaf Warblers being present here. the Yunnan region of China, and the Japanese Thrush is another In Anjaw District, we had observed many Phylloscopus addition to this growing list. warblers between 25–27 December 2020, some of which 16 Indian Birds Vol. 17 No. 1 (Publ. 29 March 2021)

resembled the Sichuan Leaf-/Lemon-rumped Warblers, with The second bird was observed at 0703 h, 27 December typical face pattern, including the eye-stripe bending like a 2020, at Tilam Top (28.16°N, 97.02°E; c.1,400 m). It generally hockey stick, pale crown stripe, and two wing-bars. These two stayed a little above the understorey and seldom went up to species look identical in plumage, are hard to tell apart in the the canopy. The bird stayed in a flock ofPhylloscopus sp., and field, and can only be separated safely by their calls. There were employed hovering techniques to catch prey mid-air (23; Fig. 2) two particular individuals whose photos were captured and calls (Shah 2020b). recorded. The first bird was seen at 1438 h, 25 December 2020, in the vicinity of Dong Resort (28.17°N, 97.04°E). The bird was seen with three other Phylloscopus sp., and would stay up high in the canopy, seldom coming out in the open, preferring to stay inside trees. The foraging bird was vocalizing while moving on a branch giving several chances to photograph [22] and record (Fig. 1) (Shah 2020a). Dhyey Shah Dhyey

23. The Sichuan Leaf Warbler from Tilam Top. Dhyey Shah 22. Sichuan Leaf Warbler at Dong Resort. Rec: Dhyey Shah Dhyey Rec:

Fig. 2. Sichuan Leaf Warbler Spectrogram from Tilam Top.

Rec: Dhyey Shah On analyzing the spectrograms of both birds, and comparing Fig. 1. Sichuan Leaf Warbler Spectrogram from Dong Resort. them with the recordings of both, Sichuan Leaf Warblers, and Correspondence 17

Lemon-rumped Warblers uploaded on Xeno Canto and Macaulay present alongside the male. This ascertained the presence of at Library, our calls resemble the recordings of the Sichuan Leaf least two individuals of the species in the vicinity. We may have Warblers from China. There is a debate whether to include the missed other individuals as it was our first encounter with the Sichuan Leaf Warbler in the India Checklist, or not (see Vercruysse species and the mixed flock was ascending a slope, and it was 2017; Jayapal & Praveen 2017; Martens 2017), and our records difficult to follow them in the snow. provide additional evidence to its presence within the region. Since our records, others have also recorded similar calls from the Walong region of Anjaw District, and they found that all lemon- rumped type of birds were uttering the same calls (Sarkar 2021).

References del Hoyo, J., Collar, N., & Christie, D. A., 2020. Sichuan Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus forresti), 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. Website URL: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.siclew1.01. [Accessed on 01 February 2021.] Jayapal, R., & Praveen J., 2017. Sichuan Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus forresti missing in the ‘India Checklist’: Response. Indian BIRDS 13 (5): 140. Martens, J., 2017. Sichuan Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus forresti missing in the ‘India Checklist’: Response. Indian BIRDS 13 (5): 140. Sarkar, A., 2021. Website URL: https://ebird.org/india/view/checklist/S79623712. [Accessed on 01 February 2021.] 24. Frontal view of a male Three-banded Rosefinch at Arunachal Pradesh. Shah, D., 2020a. Website URL: https://ebird.org/india/view/checklist/S78809997. [Accessed on 01 February 2021.] Shah, D., 2020b. Website URL: https://ebird.org/india/view/checklist/S78810223. [Accessed on 01 February 2021.] Vercruysse, E., 2017. Sichuan Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus forresti missing in the ‘India Checklist’. Indian BIRDS 13 (5): 140. – Dhyey Shah, Ketan Shah & Ravi Mekola Dhyey Shah, 39, Geetanagar Society, Pratapnagar Road, Vadodara 390004, Gujarat, India. E-mail: [email protected] Ketan Shah, 39, Geetanagar Society, Pratapnagar Road, Vadodara 390004, Gujarat, India. E-mail: [email protected] Ravi Mekola, Kera Ati, Roing, Near Misa Lingi Fair Price Shop, Lower Dibang Valley 792110,

Arunachal Pradesh, India. E-mail: [email protected] Singh Atharva Both:

Occurrence of the Three-banded Rosefinch Carpodacus trifasciatus in Arunachal Pradesh, India On 08 February 2021, we were conducting a bird survey along the temperate coniferous forest patch between Sela Pass and 25. Dorsal view of the male Three-banded Rosefinch. Baisakhi village (27.49ºN, 92.11ºE; 3,852 m asl) in the of Arunachal Pradesh. It was a targeted survey to explore the habitat and presence of pheasant (Phasianidae) and finch (Fringillidae) species as a part of our study on the status and distribution of pheasant and finch species in the eastern Himalayas. During the course of the survey we encountered a flock ofc .20 individuals of the Himalayan White-browed Rosefinch Carpodacus thura comprising both, males and females. While observing this flock, we spotted an individual with crimson plumage that was distinct from the rest of the birds. We photographed it [24, 25], and cross-referred with Grimmett et al. Himadri Mondal (2011). However, we were unable to identify the species as its plumage did not match with any of the illustrations therein. Later, upon returning to the base, we referred to the Oriental Bird Images database and https://birdsoftheworld.org/ (Clement 2020), and 26. A female of the Three-banded Rosefinch can be seen on the right. were able to narrow down the identification to the male of a Three-banded RosefinchC. trifasciatus. The bird appeared to The Three-banded Rosefinch is locally common in the be in fresh plumage, as it showed silvery-white feathers on the southern-most part of China and is found between 2,100 m forehead, face, and throat. Generally, in the non-breeding season asl and 3,050 m asl in the undergrowth and thickets of conifer feathers are lost, or abraded rapidly, and become more restricted forest, Juniper (Juniperus) thickets, Spruce (Picea), and locally in to narrow streaks on the feather shafts. This male, however, had thickets of Birch (Betula), and Willow (Salix). In winter it descends fairly broad plumage. We took several photographs of the bird, up to 1,800 m asl to the edges of cultivation, orchards, hedges, and while scanning them, realised that a female [26] was also and bushes—particularly Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster)—areas with