Correspondence 191

5759–5784. Website URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/296514346_ Redstart, as it had a prominent white band across its forehead. Diversity_Distribution_and_Status_of_Birds_of_Kolleru_Lake_-A_Ramsar_Site_ We clicked some photographs and observed the bird carefully in_Andhra_Pradesh. [Accessed on 20 September 2020.] [200]. Besides the prominent white band across its forehead Patil, P. J., More, P. V., & Vibhandik, A. R., 2019. First sighting record of a pair of Collared Pratincoles (Glareola pratincola) wintering for 18 days in Dhule District and extending beyond its eyes, it had a grey crown and mantle, of Maharashtra. Newsletter for Birdwatchers 57 (4): 45–46 (2017). a black throat that did not extend onto its breast, orange under Pittie, A., & Taher, S. A., 2004. Mid-winter waterbird census in Andhra Pradesh: parts, and a white belly. 1987–1996. Hyderabad, India: Birdwatchers’ Society of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. Pp. 1–142. Website URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B- u8pdUedG35RWtMOFB0WjNyblk/view. [Accessed on 20 September 2020.] Sadagopan, A., 2014. Snapshot sightings: Collared Pratincole from Bengaluru, Karnataka. Indian BIRDS 9 (5&6): 168A. Sravan Kumar R., Rao, V. V., Sasikala, C., & Nagulu, V., 2014. Wetland birds of Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh, India. International Journal of Fauna and Biological Studies 1 (6): 42–49. Website URL: https://www.researchgate. net/publication/313030038_Wetland_birds_of_Srikakulam_District_Andhra_ Pradesh_India. [Accessed on 20 September 2020.] SS Cheema,2019, Birding in Ameenpur lake, Hyderabad, Website URL: http:// cheemablog.blogspot.com/.[Accessed on 20 September 2020]

– John Peters & M. V. N. Vinay John Peters, Plot No 13 Noah’s Ark, Mythri Enclave, Bolarum, Secunderabad, Telangana 500010, India. E-mail: [email protected] M. V. N. Vinay, Plot No 182, Railway Employee’s Colony, Bolarum, Secunderabad 500010, Telangana, India. E-mail: [email protected]

Review of Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus sightings in India and first record from Jeelani Irfan Kangan, Kashmir Valley, India The Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus is a passage migrant in northern Balochistan and Chitral, while it’s a vagrant 200. Common Redstart Photogtaph from Kangan, Kashmir. to India (Ripley 1982; Rasmussen & Anderton 2012; Praveen et al. 2020). Two subspecies of Common Redstart exist, the nominate is found all over Europe, reaching into Siberia, and We collated past reports of the Common Redstart in India, the south-eastern subspecies P. p. samamisicus is distributed chronologically, in Table 1. After the first reports in Ladakh in from the Crimean Peninsula through Turkey, the Middle East, 1982, it is clear that more birdwatchers are reporting this bird in into Central Asia (Collar & Christie 2020; Snow & Perrins 1998). recent years from that area and there are ten confirmed reports Here, we present a review of sightings of the Common Redstart from the country rendering it no longer a vagrant. However, in India, and report on the first sighting of a Common Redstart apart from a single photograph of a possible male Common in Kangan town in the Kashmir Valley, Union Territory of Jammu Redstart from Nishat, Srinagar, Kashmir Valley, on 10 February & Kashmir. 2020 (Haris 2020), there are no other reports from Kashmir On 12 April 2020, while surveying for research work on Valley (Suhail et al. 2020) and, hence, our’s seems to be the the Ibisbill Ibidorhyncha struthersii along River Sindh at Kangan first definitive one. (34.15°N, 74.54°E), we spotted a bird, in the bushes on We thank Asad R. Rahmani for his valuable suggestions in the river bank, some 20 m away. At first sight, we thought it an earlier version of the manuscript. We thank an anonymous was a Black Redstart P. ochruros but soon the bird perched reviewer, and Praveeen J., for improving the manuscript and in the open and we could clearly see that it was not a Black providing some references.

Table 1. Sighting records of the Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus in India S. No. Location No. Of Birds Sex Date Reference 1. Thikse, Leh, Ladakh 03 Male 05 May 1982 Delany et al. (2014) 2. Thikse, Leh, Ladakh 03 Male 06 May 1982 Delany et al. (2014) 3. Thikse, Leh, Ladakh 03 Male 25 May 1982 Delany et al. (2014) 4. Tangtse, Leh, Ladakh 01 Male August 2018 Namgail (2018) 5. Diskit, Leh 01 Male 17 May 2019 Anonymous (2019a) 6. Spangmik, Pangong Leh, Ladakh 01 Male 20 May 2019 Anonymous (2019b) 7. Leh, Ladakh 01 Male 18 June 2019 Ghosh (2019) 8. Thol Bird Sanctuary, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 01 Male of samamisicus ssp. December 2019 Bhat (2018) 9. Boris Gilgit-Baltistan 01 Male 25 December 2019 Imran (2019) 10. Kangan, Kashmir Valley 01 Male 12 April 2020 This work 192 Indian Birds Vol. 16 No. 6 (Publ. 28 December 2020)

References was able to find four online images of this species with a turtle Anonymous. 2019a. Website URL: https://ebird.org/checklist/S56744197. [Accessed on in its bill, the Indian Flapshell turtle Lissemys punctata (Sahu 17 October 2020.] 2019; Singh‎ 2019) and the Western Caspian Turtle Mauremys Anonymous. 2019b. Website URL: https://ebird.org/checklist/S56615746. [Accessed on rivulata (Eni 2012; Meir 2017). This clearly shows that the 17 October 2020.] Bhatt, H., 2018. Sighting of ‘Ehrenberg’s Redstart’ Phoenicurus p. samamisicus in Thol White-throated Kingfisher can possibly feed on the hatchlings Bird Sanctuary, Gujarat, India. Indian BIRDS 14 (3): 85. of the soft-shell, and the hard-shell turtles. Apart from the Collar, N., & Christie, D. A., 2020. Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), White-throated Kingfisher, the Belted KingfisherMegaceryle version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, alcyon and the Buff-breasted KingfisherTanysiptera sylvia are and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Website also known to feed on the turtles (Schablein 2012; Woodall & URL: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.comred2.01. [Accessed on 17 October 2020.] Kirwan 2020a). Delany, S., Garbutt, D., Williams, C., Sulston, C., Norton, J., & Denby, C., 2014. The Southampton University Ladakh Expeditions 1976–1982: Full details of nine species previously unrecorded in India and four second records. Indian BIRDS 9 (1): 1–13. Ghosh, J., 2019. Website URL: https://www.facebook.com/jayanta.ghosh.14/ posts/2265096516912857. [Accessed on 17 October 2020.] Haris, S., 2020. Website URL: https://ebird.org/checklist/S70628711. [Accessed on 17 October 2020.] Imran, S., 2019. Website URL: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/36928081. [Accessed on 17 October 2020.] Namgail, D., 2018. Website URL: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/237653539723550/?post_id=1402160533272839. [Accessed on 17 October 2020.] Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2020. Checklist of the birds of India (v4.1). Website URL: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/. [Date of publication: 25 July 2020]. Rasmussen, P. C., & Anderton, J. C., 2012. Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide: field guide. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx

Edicions. Vol. 1 of 2 vols. Pp. 1–378. Gokhale Pranav Ripley, S. D., 1982. A synopsis of the birds of India and Pakistan together with those of Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. 2nd ed. Bombay; Oxford: Bombay Natural History Society; Oxford University Press. Pp. i–xxvi, 1–653. Snow, D. W., & Perrins, C. M., 1998. The birds of the Western Palearctic (Concise ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Website URL: https://hdl.handle. 201. The White-throated Kingfisher holding an Indian Flapshell Turtle hatchling. net/11245/1.132115. ISBN: 0-19-854099-X. Suhail, I., Ahmad, R., & Ahmad, K., 2020. Avifaunal diversity in Jammu and Kashmir References state. In: Dar, G. H., & Khuroo, A. A., (eds.). Biodiversity of the Himalaya: Jammu Ali, S., & Ripley, S. D., 2001. Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan together with and Kashmir State. Singapore: Springer Nature. Pp. 897–931. Website URL: those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. 2nd ed. Delhi: (Sponsored https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9174-4_35. by Bombay Natural History Society.) Oxford University Press [Oxford India Paperbacks.]. Vol. 4 of 10 vols. Pp. 2 ll., pp. i–xvii, 1–267 + 1 l., 2 ll. – Khursheed Ahmad, Irfan Jeelani, Rifat Ara Wani, Intesar Suhail Bhupathy, S., 1989. Morphometry of the Indian Flap-shell Turtte (Lissemys punctata Khursheed Ahmad & Irfan Jeelani, Division of Wildlife Sciecnes, Sher-e-Kashmir University of andersoni). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 86 (2): 252. Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-Kashmir), Eni, S., 2012. Website URL: https://www.jungledragon.com/image/3701/white- Shaliamr, Srinagar 190025, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, India. throated_kingfisher_feeding_on_small_turtle.html. [Accessed on 24 August E-mail: [email protected] [Corresponding author] 2020.] Rifat Ara Wani, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Meir, A., 2017. Website URL: https://www.alamy.com/stock-image-white-throated- Srinagar, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, India. Intesar Suhail, Department of Wildlife Protection, Jammu & Kashmir Government, Srinagar, kingfisher-halcyon-smyrnensis-with-a-tortoise-in-its-164312683.html. [Accessed on Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, India. 24 August 2020.] Sahu, B., 2019. Website URL: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=22166924 75050916&set=a.940948439291999&type=3&theater. [Accessed on 24 August Turtles in the diet of White-throated Kingfisher 2020.] Halcyon smyrnensis Schablein, J., 2012. ‘Megaceryle alcyon’ (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Website On 01 July 2015, at 1700 h, at Chiplun (17.52°N, 73.52°E), URL: http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Megaceryle_alcyon/. [Accessed on 24 August 2020.] Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra, I noticed a White-throated Singh‎, A., 2019. Website URL: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=24335958 Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis carrying something unusual 03562696&set=gm.2456182391366198&type=3&theater&ifg=1. [Accessed on 24 in its beak; to my disbelief, it was a turtle. I approached closer August 2020.] to get a better view, however the bird flew off with the lifeless Woodall, P. F., & Kirwan, G. M., 2020a. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher (Tanysiptera turtle. Looking at the photographs [201] I realised that the turtle sylvia), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. was actually a hatchling of the Indian Flapshell turtle Lissemys A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Website URL: https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/bubpak1/cur/ punctata. This widespread turtle species lacks a hard shell and is introduction#food. [Accessed on 24 August 2020.] a member of the soft-shell turtle group. It grows to a size of 35 Woodall, P. F., & Kirwan, G. M., 2020b. White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon cm (Bhupathy 1989). smyrnensis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, The White-throated Kingfisher feeds on a variety of D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, arthropods, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, birds, and occasionally NY, USA. Website URL: https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/whtkin2/1.0/ introduction. [Accessed on 24 August 2020.] small mammals (Ali & Ripley 2001; Woodall & Kirwan 2020b). – Pranav Gokhale A turtle in the diet of a White-throated Kingfisher has not been Wildlife Institute of India, Post Box # 18, Chandrabani, Dehradun 248001, Uttarakhand, India. formally documented from across its distribution range, but I E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]