20 Indian BirDS VOL. 11 NO. 1 (PUBL. 12 JANUARY 2016) A report of Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus from Amravati District, Maharashtra Ashish Choudhari, Manohar Khode, G. A. Wagh & J. S. Wadatkar Choudhari, A., Khode, M., Wagh, G. A., & Wadatkar, J. S., 2016. A report of Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus from Amaravati District, Maharashtra. Indian BIRDS 11 (1): 20. Ashish Choudhari, Sawata Chouwk, Warud, Amravati District, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: [email protected] [Corresponding author.] [AC] Manohar Khode, Sarswati Nagar, Warud, Amravati District, Maharashtra, India. [MK] G. A. Wagh, Shri Shivaji Science College, Amravati District 444603,Maharashtra, India. E-mail: [email protected] [GAW] J. S. Wadatkar, Wildlife & Environment Conservation Society, 42, Green Park Colony, Shegaon Road, Amravati, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: [email protected] [JSW] Manuscript received on 15 April 2015. he Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus is listed agriculture patches, villages like Sawanga, Goregaon, and Kasari, as Near-threatened by BirdLife international (2015) as it and is connected to the Kasari forest area. On both these lakes Thas undergone a moderately rapid population decline. In we observed fishing by the local fishermen. India it is found all over the plains, and coastal wetlands, being On 28 September 2014, AC and MK visited Dabhi Lake for widespread, but not common (Rasmussen & Anderton 2012). birding, and sighted one unusually tall bird on a small island in There are only a few records of the species from Maharashtra, the lake. They identified it as a Black-necked Stork [33] with the where it is widely, but thinly distributed in suitable wetlands help of Grimmett et al. (1999). AC informed JSW, and GAW (Rahmani et al. 2014). This stork has been sighted in the about the sighting, and sent them a few images of this bird. The Vidarbha region of Maharashtra in Nagpur District (D’Abreu bird in the photographs was identified as a juvenile because the 1935; Anon. 2009), and at the Navegaon Bandh Reservoir in colour of its legs had not changed to the coral red of an adult. The Navegaon National Park,Gondia District, (Paliwal & Bhandarkar Black-necked Stork was not seen subsequently at Dabhi Lake. 2014). However, it has not yet been reported from Amravati On 15 January 2015, AC and MK visited Sawanga Lake, District (Wadatkar et al. 2010). Through this note, we report a few which is 28 km away from the Dabhi Lake, and noted one Black- instances where this species was reported from two wetlands in necked Stork, possibly the same juvenile from the latter wetland, the district. feeding with a flock of Wooly-necked StorksCiconia episcopus. It Dabhi Lake (21.45ºN, 78.20ºE), and Sawanga Reservoir was present here, amongst the Wooly-necked Storks, during our (21.24ºN, 78.10ºE) are situated in the foothills of the Satpuda subsequent visits: thrice in March–April, and twice in May–June Range, in Warud tehsil, Amravati District, Maharashtra. Dabhi Lake 2015. is 13 km from Warud, and 93 km from Amravati, by road. It is On 05 April 2015 JSW and GAW also visited Sawanga Lake surrounded by irrigated agricultural land, and is near Mahendri at 0900 hrs and observed a juvenile Black-necked Stork feeding. Reserve Forest. Sawanga Reservoir is about 15 km away from If all of these sightings were of the same bird, which is most Warud, and 75 km from Amravati, and is surrounded by some likely, this bird must have stayed for about six months in Warud Tehsil, Amravati District. After 27 June 2015 this bird was not seen on both water bodies. This appears to be the first report of the bird from Amravati District, as well as from the western part of the Vidarbha region (Anon. 2009; Wadatkar et al. 2010). References Anonymous. 2009. Checklist of birds Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. VNHS Center, Nagpur. BirdLife International. 2015. Species factsheets. Website URL: www.birdlife.org. [Accessed on July 2015.] D’Abreu, E. A., 1935. A list of the birds of the Central Provinces. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 38 (1): 95–116. Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 1999. Pocket guide to the birds of the Indian Subcontinent. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. 1–384. Paliwal, G. T., & Bhandarkar, S. V., 2014. Sighting of threatened birds in Navegaon National Park IBA, Maharashtra. Mistnet 15 (1): 7–9. Rahmani, A. R., Kasambe, R., Narwade, S., Patil, P., & Khan, N. I., 2014.Threatened birds of Maharashtra. Mumbai: Oxford University Press. Pp. i–xii, 1–221. Rasmussen, P. C., & Anderton, J. C., 2012. Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. 2 Photo: Ashish Choudhari vols. Pp. 1–378; 1–683. 33. Juvenile Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus at Dabhli Lake, 28 September Wadatkar, J., Kasambe, R., & Wagh, G., 2010. Checklist of birds of Amravati District. 2014. Amravati: Wildlife & Environment Conservation Society. Pp. i–ii, 1–22..