162 Indian Birds Vol. 8 No. 6 (Publ. 15 October 2013)

Record of a Greater Phoenicopterus roseus from Nagpur, Kartik Shukul

Shukul, K., 2013. Record of a Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus from Nagpur, India. Indian BIRDS 8 (6): 162. Kartik Shukul, 538, Shankar Bhawan, Thapar Marg, Clarke Town, Nagpur 440004, , India. Email: [email protected] Manuscript received on 17 March 2013.

he Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus is a widespread 217–219. visitor to the plains in India, and breeds in Gujarat (Grimmett D’Abreu, E. A., 1935. A list of the birds of the Central Provinces. Journal of the Bombay et al. 1999). Flocks may be seen at shallow brackish lakes, Natural History Society 38 (1): 95–116. T Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 2011. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. 2nd ed. tidal mudflats, and saltpans (Ali & Ripley 1987; Grimmett et al. London: Oxford University Press & Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–528. 1999; Kazmierczak 2000). Kazmierczak, K., 2000. A field guide to the birds of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, A single Greater Flamingo [192] was first sighted in the Saiki Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. 1st ed. New Delhi: Om Book Service. Pp. Lake (20°54’N, 79°11’E), approximately 20 km south-east of 1–352. Nagpur (Maharashtra, India), on 31 December 2012 at 0800 Osmaston, B. B., 1922. Occurrence of the Flamingo in the Central Provinces. Journal of hrs and at 1700 hrs. The lake is approximately 2.62 km2 in area the Bombay Natural History Society 28 (2): 549–550. and has a 13.1 km perimeter. This individual was submerged to Islam, Z.-u., & Rahmani, A. R., 2004. Important Bird Areas in India. Priority sites for the point that its legs were invisible. The bird was seen again on conservation. 1st ed. Mumbai: Indian Bird Conservation Network: Bombay Natural 1 January 2013 at 1600 hrs on the opposite end of the lake. On History Society and BirdLife International (UK). Pp. i–xviii, 1–1133. this occasion the bird was in the shallow end of the water with most of its legs visible. I observed the individual for about 15 min., after which it abruptly flew off to the opposite end of the lake when a River Tern Sterna aurantia plunged into the water just a few feet from it. We followed the bird back to the other end of the lake where we watched it walking on a ploughed field. Sightings of the Greater Flamingo, so far inland, around Nagpur, are rare. In 1912, flocks were seen occasionally in and around Nagpur (D’Abreu 1931). On 9 June 1912 a large flock was observed on the Ambajheri Tank and on 27 June 1912 a specimen was obtained in the Gorewara Tank near Nagpur (D’Abreu 1931, 1935). In July 1920, a flock of seven was seen resting on a mudflat in the Gorewara Tank near Nagpur (Osmaston 1921). Since 1921 there are no records of this species from Nagpur, until the present individual was sighted at the Saiki Lake. Elsewhere in Maharashtra, it is recorded at the Sewri mudflats, South Mumbai, from October till March (Rahmani & Islam 2004). It is also known to be occasional, scarce or erratic in the south- western Maharashtra, e.g., at Bhigwan Lake (Bharucha & Gogte 1990).

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Mr. Indraneel Dani and Mr. Udayan Patil for the information they provided. I am grateful to Mr. Anirudh Majumdar for his expert comments on this note. I am also grateful to Dr. Taej Mundkur for helping me write an earlier draft of this note.

192. 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. With the compliments of Bharucha, E. K., & Gogte, P. P., 1990. Avian profile of a man-modified aquatic ecosys- tem in the backwaters of the . Journal of the Bombay Natural History G.B.K. Charitable Trust Society 87 (1): 73–90. D’Abreu, E. A., 1931. Notes on the Fauna of British India: Birds, chiefly with reference B-1/504, Marathon Innova, Ganapatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai-400 013. to the Central Provinces. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 35 (1):