Editorial— Indian Birds
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Indian Birds Vol. 4 No. 1 January-February 2008 ISSN 0973-1407 Editor Emeritus Zafar Futehally Editor Aasheesh Pittie Email: [email protected] Contents Associate Editor Records of European Roller Coracias garrulus A case of infanticide by a hen House V. Santharam from southern Peninsular India, Sparrow Passer domesticus Editorial Board including the first sighting from Kerala Pramod Patil & Girish Jathar 21 Maan Barua S. Prasanth Narayanan, K. M. Sajith, Anwaruddin Choudhury Ajay P. Pillai, M. M. Narendran & The oldest name of the mainland form of the Bill Harvey B. Sreekumar 2 Asian Golden Weaver Ploceus hypoxanthus Farah Ishtiaq Aasheesh Pittie & Edward C. Dickinson 22 Rajah Jayapal First breeding record of Besra Sparrowhawk Madhusudan Katti Accipiter virgatus besra from southern India Freak accidental death of a White-breasted Taej Mundkur Sellamuthu Somasundaram & Lalitha Vijayan 6 Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis Rishad Naoroji Kiran Vasant Purandare 23 Suhel Quader Crematogaster ants in shaded coffee Mew Gull Larus canus at Harike Lake, Harkirat Singh Sangha plantations: a critical food source for Punjab, India C. Sashikumar Rufous Woodpecker Micropternus brachyurus Anand Prasad 24 S. Subramanya and other forest birds K. Gopi Sundar C. K. Vishnudas 9 Horned Grebe Podiceps auritus at Contributing Editors Harike Lake, Punjab, India Praveen J. Grey Hypocolius Hypocolius ampelinus in Anand Prasad 25 Ragupathy Kannan Kachchh, Gujarat, India Lavkumar Khachar J. K. Tiwari 12 Nesting of Wire-tailed Swallow Hirundo smithii in Kodiyampalayam, Pichavaram mangrove, Contributing Photographer Short Notes Tamil Nadu, India Clement Francis Sighting of the Great White Pelican Pelecanus S. Sandilyan, K. Thiyagesan & R. Nagarajan 27 Arpit Deomurari onocrotalus at Kolleru Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India Sighting of the Philippine Shrike Layout & Design Humayun Taher & Umesh Mani 14 Lanius cristatus lucionensis at K. Jayaram Rameswaram Island, Tamil Nadu, India Office Southern-most breeding record of the V. Santharam 28 P. Rambabu Comb Duck Sarkidiornis melanotos from India Robert B. Grubh, Pal Pandian, A. Rajesh, Columns Mahiban Ross & Shailaja Grubh 15 Recoveries from the Newsletter for NEW ORNIS FOUNDATION Birdwatchers (1969)ó19 Registration No. 314/2004 Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis at Zafar Futehally 28 URL: www.indianbirds.in Harike Lake, Punjab, India Anand Prasad 16 A flight down memory laneó The little brown puzzlesó4 Trustees Lavkumar Khachar 30 Zafar Futehally Photographic record of Forest Eagle-Owl Aasheesh Pittie Bubo nipalensis from Kanha National Park, Reviews 32 V. Santharam, PhD. Madhya Pradesh, India Rishad Naoroji Ajit J. Deshmukh 18 Postcard from The Netherlandsó Taej Mundkur, PhD. World Owl Conferenceó2007 S. Subramanya, PhD. Orange-headed Thrush Zoothera citrina Raju Kasambe & Pravin Charde 34 Suhel Quader, PhD. cyanotaóa first record for Rajasthan, India Gleanings 35 Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj & Harkirat Singh Sangha 19 Aims & Objectives In the news 36 • To publish a newsletter that will provide a First nesting record of Black-naped platform to birdwatchers for publishing notes Monarch-Flycatcher Hypothymis azurea Correspondence 39 and observations primarily on birds of South in Rajasthan, India Asia. Harkirat Singh Sangha & Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj 20 Editorial 40 • To promote awareness of birdwatching amongst the general public. • To establish and maintain links/liaison with other Date of publication: 10th July 2008 associations or organized bodies in India or abroad whose objectives are in keeping with the objectives of the Trust (i.e. to support amateur Front cover: Asian Barred Owlet Glaucidium cuculoides. birdwatchers with cash / kind for projects in Photographer: Clement Francis. ornithology). Indian Birds Vol. 4 No. 1 (JanuaryñFebruary 2008) 1 Records of European Roller Coracias garrulus from southern Peninsular India, including the first sighting from Kerala S. Prasanth Narayanan, K. M. Sajith, Ajay P. Pillai, M. M. Narendran & B. Sreekumar Narayanan, S. P., Sajith, K. M., Pillai, A. P., Narendran, M. M. & Sreekumar, B. 2008. Records of European Roller Coracias garrulus from southern Peninsular India, including the first sighting from Kerala. Indian Birds 4 (1): 2–5. S. Prasanth Narayanan, Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History—Deccan Regional Station, 12-13-588/B. Nagarjuna Nagar Colony, Tarnaka, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. Email: [email protected] [Corresponding author] K. M. Sajith; Ajay P. Pillai; M. M. Narendran & B. Sreekumar: Kottayam Nature Society, Sreenilayam, Near Union Club, Kottayam, Kerala, India. Mss received on: 12th December 2007. Introduction south of latitude 18ºN are collated and assessed in this note. The European Roller Coracias garrulus Linnaeus, 1758, Other than the sighting from Kerala, this species has been belongs to the family Coraciidae (Order: Coraciformes). Also recorded at least 18 times from 15 locations in southern known as Common Roller (Whistler 1949) and Kashmir Peninsular India (Table 1). Of these, most of the records are Roller (Bates & Lowther 1991; Ali & Ripley 2001), though from Goa followed by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. So Blanford (1895) used the present common. According to del far there are no reports of this species from Tamil Nadu. It Hoyo et al. (2001) two sub-species are recognised, the has been spotted twice at the International Crop Research nominate and C. g. semenowi; the latter breeds in Iraq, Iran Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Campus of (except northwest), Turkmenistan, south Kazakhistan and Andhra Pradesh and the Bhagavan Mahavir Wildlife northwest China (west Sinkiang) and Kashmir in India. Sanctuary in Goa. All available reports of the species in this Blanford (1895) states that it breeds commonly in Kashmir region are during September–January, with most records in and Bates & Lowther (1991) and Ali & Ripley (2001) have October–November. given account on its breeding grounds and habits. It winters in Africa (Blanford 1895), from Ethiopia, Congo and south First sighting of the European Roller from Kerala to South Africa (del Hoyo et al. 2001). But Ali & Ripley (2001) On 29th September 2002, we had a birding trip to the state that C. g. semenowi winters mainly in Arabia and most Erupathinalayiram Kayal (Kayal = back-water/lake) probably in Africa. (09°30’55’’N, 76°27’37’’E) paddy fields of the Alappuzha district, which is in the Kayal land agro-economic division Migration records from southern India of Kuttanad wetland region (Indo-Dutch Mission 1989). This European Roller is a passage migrant in north-western India area forms a part of the Vembanad Important Bird Area (Islam (Blanford 1895; Grimmet et al. 2000). Whistler (1949) & Rahmani 2005) and Vembanad-Kol Ramsar Site mentioned that this species is plentiful during its fall (Sreekumar 2003). These paddy fields are in the command migration in the plains of the north-western regions of India. area of the Vembanad Lake. During our visit, water had been It passes through Rajasthan, north and north-west Gujarat drained for cultivation purposes, leaving the entire area during mid August–October (Ali & Ripley 2001). The covered with black mud, the favourite foraging habitat for southern range figures only on the outward migration waders. Our objective was to observe waders and we towards its wintering quarters (Bates & Lowther 1991). watched birds from 0630hrs to 1130hrs. When we were According to Ghorpade (2002) this species seems to be a returning, we saw an unusual bird with a brownish back regular winter straggler to the northern part of Peninsular and pale sky-blue head and under parts. We immediately India. But Prasad (2003) states that it is an uncommon identified it as a roller based on our familiarity with the passage and winter migrant to western Maharashtra. locally occurring Indian Roller Coracias benghalensis. The bird However the map in Rasmussen & Anderton (2005) indicates was perched on a bamboo stake planted in the muddy paddy that western Maharashtra and Goa lie on the fall migration field. It flew away after a few minutes and sat near a small route. These passage migrants are quite rare in southern channel close to a bund separating two paddy fields. The India and there are only a few records of the species from flight pattern was similar to that of an Indian Roller and we Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (Sashikumar 2002). were able to clearly see the dark primary feathers and corners Therefore records of European Rollers from Peninsular India of the tail of the bird in flight. We later lost sight of the bird in 2 Indian Birds Vol. 4 No. 1 (JanuaryñFebruary 2008) Narayanan et. al.: European Roller the fields. On returning home we confirmed it to be an adult As mentioned by Rasmussen & Anderton (2005) southern European Roller—using descriptions from Grimmett et al. western Maharashtra and Goa lie on its fall migration path. (2000), Kazmierczak (2000) and Ali & Ripley (2001). Ali We assume that European Rollers are stragglers to the rest (1984) and Neelakantan (1996) do not mention the of the southern region. Simpson (1984) recorded this species occurrence of this species from Kerala nor has there been on two occasions (26th & 27th September 1983), 140km west any record, published or anecdotal, from this state. of Thane (Maharashtra), in the Arabian Sea. Satheesan Subsequent to our sighting, K. V. Eldhose and three British (1990) reported a bird-hit involving this species with an birders spotted a lone European Roller on 28th November