15 AUSTRALIAN Field Ornithology 2009, 26, 15–18 A Record of a in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands

MOHAMMAD-SAID CHONGKIN1, ISMAIL MACRAE1 & IAN A.W. McALLAN2 1Department of the Environment and Heritage, Cocos (Keeling) Islands 6799 246 Yeramba Street, Turramurra, New South Wales 2074

Summary A first-winter male Watercock Gallicrex cinerea, a species that regularly migrates from northern to southern , was captured, examined and released at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in December 2005. This is the first documented record of the Watercock for this Australian Territory ( Australia Rarities Committee Case no. 566), the others being for Christmas Island, and is the first Watercock photographed in any Australian Territory.

Observations On 24 December 2005, the senior authors, Mohammad-Said Chongkin (MC) and Ismail Macrae (IsM), were undertaking a regular survey by boat of the islands in the southern part of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. At 0930 h local time they were on the ocean side of Horsburgh Island ~100 m from a dive-site known as the Ross Wall, near 12°08′S, 96°49′E, when they observed a that they could not identify floating on the water. The bird made no attempt to fly and only limited efforts to swim away as it was approached by boat. It was photographed, and after several attempts IsM captured it. It was taken aboard the boat where it was again photographed (Plate 1, front cover). As MC and IsM were transferring from the boat to a dinghy to get to shore on West Island the bird briefly escaped. It flew a few metres before being recaught. It was taken to the Department of Environment & Heritage offices where it was photographed a third time (Plate 7) and examined closely. No obvious injuries were found and it was thought to have recovered so was released at noon the same day on West Island along the shoreline of the Northern Lagoon, north of the airport. MC and IsM had limited literature available to them, principally an Australian field guide (Simpson & Day 1996). Given the colour of the plumage and the length of the toes, the bird was initially thought to be a member of the heron family (Ardeidae). On 21 November 2006, the photographs were shown to Ian McAllan, who recognised the bird as a Watercock Gallicrex cinerea, a species not illustrated by Simpson & Day (1996). Comparison with Robson (2000) at this time also confirmed the identity.

Description This description is taken largely from the photographs obtained at the time (Plates 1, 7). Structure The bird was clearly a (Plates 1, 7). It had a strong straight stout bill with an incipient frontal shield, together measuring 48 mm; a small rounded head with a long neck and long body; a short tail, upturned when standing; wings longer than tail when folded; and long legs and feet. This gave it a general appearance AUSTRALIAN 16 CHONGKIN, MACRAE & McALLAN Field Ornithology

Watercock captured at sea off Horsburgh Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and photographed at Department of Environment & Heritage Offices Plate 7 Photo: Parks Australia similar to a Purple Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio. In size it appeared larger than a White-breasted Waterhen phoenicurus or Buff-banded Rail Gallirallus philippensis, both residents of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

Plumage Head and neck Crown and hindneck finely speckled brown on a buff background giving an overall brown hue. It was brownish anterior to and below each eye, with a paler buff supercilium circling down around the cheek to the chin and front of neck (Plates 1, 7). Underparts Buff with vague brown barring on the upper breast and barring on feathers of the the flanks (Plate 7). Belly and undertail not noted. Upperparts Lower neck and mantle feathers coarsely patterned—dark brown, broadly edged rufous-buff. Wing-feathers, especially scapulars, tertials and secondaries, similar to mantle, though the primaries were only finely edged buff, making the outerwing appear dark brown (Plates 1, 7). Tail Uppertail-coverts also dark brown and finely edged buff as were the tail- feathers, giving this area a dark-brown appearance (Plate 1).

Bare parts Legs and feet were yellowish grey; bill yellow, with brown near the tip of the upper mandible, along the ridgeline and posterior to each nostril through to the incipient frontal shield; irides hazel-brown (Plates 1, 7). VOL. 26 (1–2) march–june 2009 Watercock: First Record for Cocos (Keeling) Islands 17

Discussion Identification The bird was a rail (Rallidae), though other similar species could include the bitterns within the heron family (Ardeidae) and quail and pheasants (Phasianidae). Small bitterns have longer bills and finer legs, and lack the suggestion of a frontal shield found in the bird concerned. Members of the pheasant family resident on the islands include the Green Junglefowl Gallus varius and semi-domesticated Red Junglefowl (Feral Chicken) G. gallus, both of which have shorter legs, much shorter toes, and a shorter bill that is not downcurved at the tip. No other pheasant species has been recorded from the island group. The only rails resident locally, the White-breasted Waterhen and Buff-banded Rail, are significantly smaller than the bird found off Horsburgh Island, and are well known to the authors. The former has dark grey-and-white plumage with no coarse patterning, and the latter has a rich-rufous crown, blackish feathers on the upperparts, the feathers variously tipped with white spots, and fine bold bars on the underparts. The plumage pattern of the upperparts of the Corncrake Crex crex is similar to that of the bird found off Horsburgh Island, although the Corncrake is even smaller, having a total length of >10 cm less than a Watercock (Taylor & van Perlo 1998). The Corncrake also has distinctive tawny-rufous upperwing-coverts. The Horsburgh Island bird matches illustrations of the Watercock found in many field guides (e.g. MacKinnon & Phillipps 1993; Coates & Bishop 1997; Taylor & van Perlo 1998; Robson 2000).

Ageing The bird was not an adult male in breeding plumage, as such birds are largely dark slaty grey with a small protuberance near the frontal shield. Male non- breeding, female, juvenile and first-winter birds all have similar coarsely patterned, brown-and-buff plumages (Johnstone & Darnell 2004). The differences are mainly of size: non-breeding males are much larger, closer to the upper size limit of Purple Swamphen, and females are near the lower size limit (Robson 2000). Ripley (1977) gave a bill and frontal shield measurement range for an unspecified number of male Watercocks of 47–50 mm and females of 37–42 mm. Taylor & van Perlo (1998) gave a range for 20 males of 41–65 mm (average 53.1 mm, standard deviation 6.1 mm) and for 20 females of 32–43 mm (average 38.8 mm, s.d. 2.5 mm). The bird is thus likely to have been male, based on its measurement of 48 mm. Rather than being a juvenile bird, the date of 24 December, coupled with the incomplete barring on the breast, suggest that it was a first-winter male.

Status The Watercock migrates within Asia. It breeds in the Northern Hemisphere from through east to , Korea and and south to the Maldives, , Sumatra, Malaya, Indochina and the (Ali & Ripley 1983; Van Marle & Voous 1988; Dickinson et al. 1991; Taylor & van Perlo 1998; Robson 2000). Individuals in the northern part of the range have winter movements south to Singapore and the Greater Sundas, with outlying records from Sulawesi and the western Lesser Sundas (White & Bruce 1986; Van Marle & Voous 1988; Coates & Bishop 1997; Robson 2000). This is the first record of the Watercock from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and has been accepted by the Birds Australia Rarities Committee (BARC Case no. 566). AUSTRALIAN 18 CHONGKIN, MACRAE & McALLAN Field Ornithology

The species has been reported on at least four occasions on Christmas Island: ‘a number’ were seen in December and January 1972 (Van Tets 1974); one was seen by Tony Stokes in January 1982 (Stokes 1988); an immature or female-type bird was seen by Phil Hansbro on 30 December 1999 (accepted by BARC, Case no. 283) (Hansbro 2000); and an immature or female-type bird was seen by David James on 8 March 2002 (accepted by BARC, Case no. 346) (Palliser 2004). This species has not been recorded elsewhere in Australia or its territories. Christmas Island is only 360 km from the island of Java in , and thus the possibility of a migrant bird ‘overshooting’ the wintering destination could be expected. Records from Sulawesi and the Lesser Sundas can also be viewed in the same light. The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are much farther from mainland Asia: 2500 km from Sri Lanka and 920 km from Sumatra and Java. On this basis records of vagrant birds in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are much less likely than on Christmas Island. Nonetheless, with increasing visits of birdwatchers, there are increased numbers of records of vagrant birds in the Cocos (Keeling) group.

Acknowledgements Useful comments were received from David James and Mike Carter.

References Ali, S. & Ripley, S.D. (1983), Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, compact edn, Oxford University Press, Delhi. Coates, B.J. & Bishop, D.K. (1997), A Guide to the Birds of Wallacea, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia, Dove Publications, Brisbane. Dickinson, E.C., Kennedy, R.S. & Parkes, K.C. (1991), The Birds of the Philippines, BOU Checklist 12, British Ornithologists Union, Tring, UK. Hansbro, P. (2000) ‘Observations from Christmas Island, 25 December 1999 to 1 January 2000’, Australian Birding 6 (3, 4), 25, 28. Johnstone, R.E. & Darnell, J.C. (2004), ‘Appendix A. Annotated checklist of Christmas Island birds’, pp. 438–476 in Johnstone, R.E. & Storr, G.M., Handbook of Western Australian Birds, Volume II. Passerines (Blue-winged Pitta to Goldfinch), Western Australian Museum, Perth. MacKinnon, J. & Phillipps, K. (1993), A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Palliser, T. (2004), ‘Rare birds in 2003’, Wingspan 14(3), 38–39. Ripley, S.D. (1977), Rails of the World, M.F. Feheley, Toronto, Canada. Robson, C. (2000), A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia, New Holland, London. Simpson, K. & Day, N. (1996), Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, A Book of Identification, 5th edn, Viking O’Neil, Melbourne. Stokes, T. (1988), A Review of the Birds of Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, Occasional Paper 16, Australian National Parks & Wildlife Service, Canberra. Taylor, B. & van Perlo, B. (1998), Rails: A Guide to the Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World, Pica Press, Mountfield, UK. Van Marle, J.G. & Voous, K.H. (1988), The Birds of Sumatra, BOU Checklist 10, British Ornithologists Union, Tring, UK. Van Tets, G.F. (1974), ‘List of bird species found at Christmas Island’, pp. 34–42 in Conservation of Endangered Bird Species on Christmas Island, Report of House of Representatives Standing Committee of the Environment and Conservation, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. White, C.M.N. & Bruce, M.D. (1986), The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia), BOU Checklist 7, British Ornithologists Union, Tring, UK.

Received 11 September 2008 