VOL. 7 NO. 5 IndianIndian PeafowlPeafowl | Vol. 7 No. 5 | Vol. Masked Finfoot RDS I B Hunting in Arunachal Pradesh Indian CONTENTS 125 Habitat use and food habits of Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus in Anaikatty Hills, Western Ghats Indian BIRDS N. Rajeshkumar & P. Balasubramanian www.indianbirds.in VOL. 7 NOS. 5 128 Finding fascinating Finfoots DATE OF PUBLICATION: 1 FEBRUARY 2012 Sayam U. Chowdhury ISSN 0973-1407 134 Bird hunting in Mishmi Hills of Arunachal Pradesh, EDITOR EMERITUS: Zafar Futehally north-eastern India EDITOR: Aasheesh Pittie Ambika Aiyadurai [email protected] 138 A photographic record of a displaying Malayan Night- ASSOCIATE EDITORS: V. Santharam, Praveen J. Heron Gorsachius melanolophus in Goa, India EDITORIAL BOARD Amit Bandekar, Prasanna Parab & Shriguru Shetkar Maan Barua, Anwaruddin Choudhury Bill Harvey, Farah Ishtiaq, Rajah Jayapal 139 Huge concentrations of the White-eyed Buzzard Madhusudan Katti, R. Suresh Kumar Butastur teesa at Tal Chhapar Wildlife Sanctuary, Taej Mundkur, Rishad Naoroji, Suhel Quader Churu district, Rajasthan Harkirat Singh Sangha, C. Sashikumar S. Subramanya, K. S. Gopi Sundar Harkirat Singh Sangha, Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj & Surat Singh Poonia CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ragupathy Kannan, Lavkumar Khachar 140 Occurrence of Lesser Florican Sypheotides indicus CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS in Bangalore, Karnataka, India Clement Francis, Ramki Sreenivasan M. Raghavendra LAYOUT & COVER DESIGN: K. Jayaram 143 Buff-breasted Sandpiper Tryngites subruficollis OffICE: P. Rambabu from northern Kerala : a third record for India P. C. Rajeevan & Jayan Thomas NEW ORNIS FOUNDATION 144 Feeding record of the Green Cochoa Cochoa viridis Registration No. 314/2004 in Pakke Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh TRUSTEES Nandini Velho Zafar Futehally, Aasheesh Pittie V. Santharam, PhD., Rishad Naoroji 145 Notes on two migratory cuckoos from the Taej Mundkur, PhD., S. Subramanya, PhD. Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, southern India Suhel Quader, PhD. V. V. Robin & Sudheendra Rao AIMS & OBJECTIVES • To publish a newsletter that will provide a platform to 146 First photographic record of Blyth’s Rosefinch birdwatchers for publishing notes and observations Carpodacus grandis from Sikkim, India primarily on birds of South Asia. Biswapriya Rahut, Mousumi Dutta & • To promote awareness of birdwatching amongst the Chewang Rinchen Bonpo general public. Figs in the diet of Greater Golden-backed Woodpecker • To establish and maintain links/liaison with other 147 associations or organized bodies in India or abroad Chrysocolaptes lucidus whose objectives are in keeping with the objectives Rachakonda Sreekar of the Trust (i.e. to support amateur birdwatchers with cash / kind for projects in ornithology). 148 Observations on the nests of Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler Pnoepyga albiventer: SUBSCRIPTION InfORMATION do trails affect nesting success? Type Annual 3-year T. Bashir, T. Bhattacharya, K. Poudyal, & S. Sathyakumar Individual Rs. 300 Rs. 900 Student (up to 10th) Rs. 200 Rs. 600 149 Photographic record of Long-tailed Shrike Institution Rs. 800 Rs. 2,400 Lanius schach tricolor from Bandhavgarh National Park, Foreign Individual $30 $90 Madhya Pradesh, India Foreign Institution $85 $225 Dipak Sawant Please make payments favouring NEW ORNIS FOUNDATION 150 Review Add Rs. 75/- for outstation cheques. (No Couriers) For online payment: 152 Letters to the Editor www.indianbirds.in/Subscribe.html Send subscriptions by ordinary post to: FRONT COVER: Malayan Night-Heron Gorsachius melanolophus. Editor, Indian Birds, New Ornis Foundation, P.O. Box # 2, PHOTOGRAPHER: Prasanna Parab Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500 034, India. BACK COVER: Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus. PHOTOGRAPHER: Kulashekara C. S. RAJESHKUMAR & BALASUBRAMANIAN: Indian Peafowl 125 Habitat use and food habits of Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus in Anaikatty Hills, Western Ghats N. Rajeshkumar & P. Balasubramanian Rajeshkumar, N., & Balasubramanian, P., 2011. Habitat use and food habits of Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus in Anaikatty Hills, Western Ghats. Indian BIRDS 7 (5): 125–127. N. Rajeshkumar & P. Balasubramanian: Division of Landscape Ecology, Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Fig. 1. Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus. Coimbatore 641108, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: [email protected] Photo: P. Manikandan Manuscript received on 9 July 2009. Abstract come under the Coimbatore Forest Division, Tamil Nadu. A non- This paper discusses habitat utilisation, time-activity budget, perennial stream, Perumpallam, flows on its western side. SACON food and feeding habits, and roost tree utilisation of Indian campus has scrub jungles and vast open areas with scattered 2 Peafowl Pavo cristatus in Anaikatty Hills, Western Ghats. The bushes. The extent of the study area was c. 2 km . Anaikatty peafowl population in the study area (2 km2) was estimated to Reserve Forest is situated in the foothills of Nilgiris, at an elevation be 21. Sixteen trees belonging to four species were used for of c. 610–750 m AMSL. The average rainfall is about 670 mm, roosting. About 50% of the roost trees were the thorny Acacia mostly received during the north-eastern monsoon. The study polyacantha, located near streams. Although the diet of peafowl was conducted from December 2004 to March 2005. constituted both animal and vegetable matter, vegetable matter comprised 91%. Methods Peafowl were directly observed under natural conditions during three time periods: 0600–1000 hrs, 1000–1400 hrs, and Introduction 1400–1800 hrs respectively. Observations were recorded in The Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus (Galliformes: Phasianidae) is a field notebook and duration of each observation was noted the national bird of India, and is common and widely distributed with a stopwatch. When a bird was sighted it was followed to in the Indian Subcontinent (Ali & Ripley 1987). However, its the extent possible. The time activity budget was determined by distribution is patchy and ranges from the Himalayas in the north focal animal sampling method (Altmann 1974) with the aid of to peninsular India in the south. In Tamil Nadu, peafowl population binoculars. The following behavioural activities were recorded. is abundant in Pudukottai, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Nilgiri, and Coimbatore districts (Veeramani & Sathyanarayna 1999; Calling: Uttered a loud call that sounded like, “he-on.” A call might Krishnakumar 2003). The species is virtually an omnivorous and normally contain one to four syllables; sometimes extending opportunistic feeder on a wide variety of insects, plants, seeds, up to seven. tender shoot, amphibians, reptiles, and worms (Baker & Inglis Displaying: Male spreading, vibrating train feathers. 1930; Ali & Ripley 1987; Trivedi & Johnsingh 1995). It serves as Feeding: Pecking any object actively on the ground or pulling at a flagship species for wildlife conservation, particularly outside the vegetation. protected areas. Today, its population is facing a severe threat due Flying: Bird observed in flight from the roost tree at dawn, or to habitat destruction, poaching, and contamination of its food towards the roost tree at dusk, or while changing a feeding source, even though it is protected under Schedule 1 of the Wild location. Life (Protection) Act, 1972. Despite its wide distribution, there Moving: Primary form of peafowl locomotion, without any en- have been very few ecological studies on peafowl populations gagements. (Sharma 1979; Johnsingh & Murali 1980; Trivedi & Johnsingh Preening: Running the bill through feathers while standing or sit- 1995; Yasmin & Yahya 1996; Yasmin 1997; Veeramani & ting. Sathyanarayana 1999). Due to the high degradation rate of Resting: Sitting on a tree or stone pillar without any activity. its natural habitats, there is an urgent need to understand the ecological requirements of wild populations of peafowl. The In order to assess their diet, food items were divided into objective of this study was to assess its food habits, habitat use, plant (leaf, shoot, flower, fruit, and seed), and animal (insect, and and to identify its roost sites. other) components. The type of food consumed and the number of instances of feeding were recorded for each observation. In addition, droppings were collected at roosting sites. Samples of Study area dry droppings were teased apart and sieved to standard microns The study was carried out in and around the Sálim Ali Centre (355–1022 microns), and isolated. Undigested plant and animal for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) campus (25 ha), matter was weighed separately on an electronic weighing scale. located at Moongilpallam, in Anaikatty Hills, Western Ghats, In order to understand the roosting behavior of peafowl, 25 km north-west of Coimbatore city in Tamil Nadu. It borders observations were made in the early morning and late evening. private land on two sides, and Anaikatty Reserve Forest on Because peafowl regularly roost during dusk, and congregate till another (11o5’N–11o31’N, 76º39’E–76o49’E). It comprises dawn, Sharma (1979) suggested that the counting of peafowl various habitats, namely, scrub jungle and open barren lands in at roosting sites at dusk and dawn could be used to determine SACON campus, and mixed dry deciduous forest and agricultural their abundance. Whenever a roost tree was located, it was fields outside the campus. The reserve forests of this landscape marked with paint, and various parameters such as tree height, 126 Indian Birds VOL. 7 NO. 5 (PUBL. 1 FEBRUARY 2012) site location and elevation, distance from waterbody,