The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Note Photographic record of Lesser Flamingo Phoeniconaias minor (Aves: Phoenicopteridae) in Ramganga river, Bareilly, India Pichaimuthu Gangaiamaran, Afab A. Usmani, G.V. Gopi, S.A. Hussain & Khursid A. Khan 26 July 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 8 | Pages: 19159–19161 DOI: 10.11609/jot.7375.13.8.19159-19161 For Focus, Scope, Aims, and Policies, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/aims_scope For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/policies_various For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2021 | 13(8): 19159–19161 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.7375.13.8.19159-19161 #7375 | Received 29 April 2021 | Final received 01 July 2021 | Finally accepted 05 July 2021 NOTE Photographic record of Lesser Flamingo Phoeniconaias minor (Aves: Phoenicopteridae) in Ramganga river, Bareilly, India Pichaimuthu Gangaiamaran 1 , Afab A. Usmani 2 , G.V. Gopi 3 , S.A. Hussain 4 & Khursid A. Khan 5 1–5 Wildlife Insttute of India, Post Box No. 18 Chandrabani, 248001, Dehradun, Utarakahnd, India 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected], 5 [email protected] (corresponding author) India is one of the mega biodiversity countries Internatonal Union for Conservaton of Nature (IUCN) consistng of 12.5% of the total avian diversity (Praveen Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2020). It is also listed et al. 2016). A total of 1,317 species of birds have been in the Agreement on the Conservaton of African-Eurasian documented in India with high endemism (Praveen et al. Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) Acton Plan (Childress et al. 2020). The Phoenicopteridae family consists of six species 2008). The Bonn Conventon (CMS) and Conventon on of famingos found worldwide and India possesses two Internatonal Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have of them, i.e., Lesser Flamingo Phoeniconaias minor enlisted this species in Appendix II, while it has been listed and Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus (Jadhav in Scheduled IV in Indian Wildlife (Protecton) Act, 1972 & Parasharya 2004). The Lesser Flamingo is one of the (Tere 2008; Rameshchnadra 2014). smallest famingo species distributed in eastern, southern, The Lesser Flamingo has been reported from Sewri and western Africa, as well as in Pakistan and northwestern mudfats and Thane Creek (Mumbai) (Vijayan et al. 2011; India (Zimmerman et al. 1996). In India, the breeding Nachane et al. 2014), Thol Lake Gujarat, Nalabana Bird populaton is confned to the Litle Rann of Kachchh in Sanctuary in Chilika Lake Odisha (Balachandran et al. Gujarat, while nonbreeding, the populaton has restricted 2009), and several other coastal and inland freshwater distributon and is mainly found along the western coast wetlands in Gujarat (Jadhav & Parasharya 2004). of the country in the state of Gujarat & Maharashtra Furthermore, all the recorded sightngs of Lesser Flamingo (Tere 2008; Rameshchandra 2014) (Figure 1). The Lesser indicate its northernmost distributon in Gurugram, Flamingo can be diferentated from the Greater Flamingo Haryana, and Natonal Chambal Sanctuary which seems based on smaller size, shorter leg & neck, smaller bill, to be approximately 248 km and 200 km far away from prominent kinked, and dark red facial skin (Grimmet et al. the current sightng (Figure 2). Its distributon in northern 2011). It is one of the world’s most numerous famingoes India is scarce and even the vagrant individuals have never estmated at one million individual birds throughout been sighted in northern Utar Pradesh and Utarakhand. the world and classifed as ‘Near Threatened’ by the We have recorded a vagrant juvenile of Lesser Flamingo Editor: H. Byju, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Date of publicaton: 26 July 2021 (online & print) Citaton: Gangaiamaran, P., A.A. Usmani, G.V. Gopi, S.A. Hussain & K.A. Khan (2021). Photographic record of Lesser Flamingo Phoeniconaias minor (Aves: Phoen- icopteridae) in Ramganga river, Bareilly, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(8): 19159–19161. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.7375.13.8.19159-19161 Copyright: © Gangaiamaran et al. 2021. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: The project was funded by Ministry of Jal Shakt with project grant number B-03/2015-16/1077/NMCG. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We are thankful to the Natonal Mission for Clean Ganga Project, Ministry of Jal Shakt, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenaton for the funding of the project. We are also grateful to the chief wildlife warden, Utar Pradesh Forest department for permissions and feld support. We sincerely thank the director and dean of Wildlife Insttute of India for their support and Dr. Ruchi Badola for planning the survey and technical guidance. We are sincerely obliged to our feld assistants and NMCG project members for their support. 19159 J TT Photographic record of Lesser Flamingo in Ramganga River Gangaiamaran et al. Figure 1. Breeding distributon of Lesser Flamingo and recent sightng in river Ramganga, Bareilly, Utar Pradesh, India Figure 2. Sightngs of Lesser Flamingo in India (ebird. com 2020). 19160 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2021 | 13(8): 19159–19161 Photographic record of Lesser Flamingo in Ramganga River Gangaiamaran et al. J TT Image 1–2. Lesser Flamingo feeding on shallow water in Ranganga River, Bareilly, Utar Pradesh, India. © P. Gangaiamaran References Balachandran, S., P. Sathiyaselvam & S. Panda (2009). Bird atlas of Chilika. 1st ed. Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai and Chilika Development Authority, Bhubaneshwar, 326 pp. Childress, B., B. Hughes, D. Harper & W. van den Bossche (2007). East African fyway and key site network of the Lesser Flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor) documented through satellite tracking. Ostrich 78: 463–468. Childress, B., S. Nagy & B. Hughes (Compilers) (2008). Internatonal Single Species Acton Plan for the Conservaton of the Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor). CMS Technical Series No. 18, AEWA Technical Series No. 34. Bonn, Germany, 61pp. Image 3. Lesser Flamingo in fight recorded at Ramganga River, ebird.com (2020). htps://ebird.org/species/lesfa1 assessed on 02 May Bareilly, Utar Pradesh, India. © P. Gangaiamaran 2020. Grimmet, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (2011). Birds of the Indian Subcontnent. 2nd Editon. Oxford University Press. New Delhi, India, 448pp. feeding on shallow water on 24 February 2020 in river IUCN (2020). htps://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22697369/93611130. Ramganga near Kadarganj (28.1484°N, 79.466°E), Bareilly, Accessed on 02 May 2020. Jadhav, A. & B.M. Parasharya (2004). Counts of famingos at some sites Utar Pradesh (Image 1–3) during the biodiversity survey in Gujarat State, India. Waterbirds, 27(2): 141–146. of river Ramganaga. This survey was a part of biodiversity Nachane, A., A. Patl, S. More, P. Salunke & M. Indap (2014). A baseline study of habitat and abundance of Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias rejuvenaton in River Ganges under the auspices of the minor) in sewri mudfats, Mumbai, India. Proceedings of the Natonal Natonal Mission for Clean Ganga. This record is one of Conference on Modern Trends in Zoological Research. Department of the northernmost distributon known for the Lesser Zoology, St.Aloysius College, Elthuruth 25–26 March 2014. Praveen, J., R. Jayapal & A. Pite (2016). A checklist of the birds of India. Flamingos in India. Indian BIRDS 11 (5&6): 113–172. The Lesser Flamingo is an itnerant species adapted Praveen, J., R. Jayapal, A. Pite, V. Shankar, P. Gokhale & K. Kunte to respond to changes in local environmental conditons (2020). Classifcaton of Indian Birds. In: Satose, V., V. Ramachandran, P. Roy & K. Kunte (chief editors). Birds of India, v. 2.14. Indian by moving across a network of suitable wetland sites Foundaton for Buterfies. Accessed on 05 May 2020. (Childress et al. 2007). Despite being numerous, the Rameshchandra V.V. (2014). Studies on Lesser Flamingo Phoeniconaias major threats the Lesser Flamingos face include predaton minor with special reference to ecology threats and conservaton management. Ph.D.