Me Sahyadri January 2017

As the economic development has taken the center stage, the balance between the environmental sustenance and socio economic development will be under the scanner. As most experts with balanced views have proclaimed, Indian wildlife and ecological system sustenance will be under threat, unless precautions are taken with the help of appropriate research and long term national interests. As we encounter the economic development, many habitats which indirectly or directly help sustainable development will be damaged. The awareness to gauge the success by sustainable development and not by year to year growth is a distant dream any environmentalist will assume in current scenario.
Western ghats, or Sahyadri as we all call it as, is a treasure trove of spectacular landscapes, biodiversity, flora, fauna, some amazing geological wonders and man made monuments. With the increasing pressure from human encroachment, all these elements are under stress and in turn are under depletion. Western ghats should be left untouched by human beings, to protect their future generations from getting short of resources, such as water, energy and clean air. The important elements of western ghats, which need protection are highlighted in the new version of Photo journal, Me Sahyadri Magazine. The current issue has few of the forest birds from the north Western Ghats.

North western ghats can be divided in to four zones. The western most zone is the Konkan region just below the western ghat ridge. The region has mix of evergreen and semidecidous forests. The second region is along the ridge at higher elevation and at the edge of Deccan plateau, called as ghatmatha, which has evergreen forest. The third region is on and around the hills on Deccan platau east of the ridge. This region mainly has semidecidoius forest. The fourth region is rain shadow region hills further east which has dry and arid habitat with grasslands. In this photoessay some of the birds from the first three forest regions are described. The evergreen forests atop the edge on Deccan plateau are rich in its biodiversity. The narrow band of this habitat all along the Western Ghats has some amazing forest birds. About 400+ species are seen in and around the four zones described above. The forest birds in particular are restricted to very narrow band of the region. Out of about 200+ birds seen in evergreen and semidecidous forests, in Western Ghats, there are about 20 endemic species. In northen section of Western Ghats some of these endemic species can be seen.

The forest birds in western ghats can be classified as resident, local migrants and migratory. Many forest birds migrate from forests around Himalaya to forests in western ghats and rest of India. The birds can also be classified as endemic and non endemic. The endemic birds are the ones which can be found only in region, western ghats in this case. The non endemic birds are the ones which are the ones which are seen not exclusively only in western ghats. Though the variety of birds seen in western ghats is not as high as in tropical forests in south America and elsewhere in south east Asia, western ghats has wide range of forest bird species.

The verditer flycatcher is one of the most enigmatic bird in western ghats. The scientifc name of this bird is Eumyias thalassinus. Though the bird is “least concern” bird as per IUCN categorisation, it is important migratory forest bird of our region. The bird is known for its color, verditer blue. Verditer blue is a colour of chemical compound copper sulphate. The word verditer origins to the mineral. The portion between lore to base of bill is black. The eye iris is hazel brown. The bill, legs, feet and claw are black colored. The size of the bird is about 150 mm. The female is similar to male bird, with dull greyish tint. Lores are dull brown. In summer this flycatcher is found between 1300 to 2700 meter in the Himalaya and higher. It breeds mainly in Himalaya with some exceptions of south India.In winter it descends from Himalaya to the plains and spreads all over North and Central India. In winter it is seen around in semideciduous, evergreen forest. The bird is also seen in south east asia.

Scientific name of Indian blue robin is Luscinia brunnea. The bird is also known as Indian blue chat. This is a small Himalayan bird from thrush family (Turdidae). It has blue and orange plumage. It is slightly larger than the common house sparrow. The bird seems to have no name in Marathi. The bird is about 13 to 15 cm in size (length from its beak to tail). The sexual dimorphism can be seen in this bird species. Sexual dimorphism is the difference in appearance between males and females of the same species, such as in colour, shape, size, and structure.The male bird has blue upperparts. The underbody of male bird is orange rufous. The bird has long broad white supercilium. The lore of the male bird is bluish black. The eye strip is blusih black which coverts ear coverts up to neck. Point of chin and narrow line under the black cheeks is white. The under tail and lower belly are white. The legs and feet are pale pinkish white. Iris of the eyes is dark brown.

The adult female is olive-brown with whitish under-parts except for the Rufus breast. The young male is like the female but has the back darker and much suffused with blue.There are two subspecies of Indian blue robin, Luscinia brunnea. The two subspecies are Larvivora brunnea brunnea and Larvivora brunnea wickhami. Out of these 2 subspecies, Larvivora brunnea brunnea is prominently recorded in India. Larvivora brunnea brunnea breeds in north east Afghanistan east through Himalaya to north eastern India and central china. The bird migrates in winter to India and Srilanka. The other subspecies Larvivora brunnea wickhami is recorded in Chin hills of Myanmar and is not migratory.

The Indian blue robin is insectivorous bird. These birds are found in dense evergreen forest undergrowth. It feeds mainly on the ground. It moves around in undergrowth in forested region.It uses its tail fanning for these small hops and manoeuvres on the ground. It turns the leaves on the forest floor to search the insects, particularly around the moist streams and under the trees with fruits fallen on the ground. It breeds from May to July in Himalaya. It nests on the ground. The female is believed to incubate but both sexes take part Indian blue robin sings and calla in their winter grounds. The song consists of sudden and sharp series of whistles ending in a rapid series of notes. They also utter a sharp and low clicking alarm note. .

The black-throated munia or Jerdon's mannikin (Lonchura kelaarti) is a small resident breeding bird in the western ghats hills of southwest India, and eastern ghats . This bird is endemic to this region. The black-throated munia feeds mainly on grass seeds. The black-throated munia is 12 cm in length with a long black tail. There are mainly two sub species of this bird. The Lonchura kelaarti kelaarti sub species is seen in Srilanka. The Lonchura kelaarti jerdoni species is seen in South western ghats and eastern ghats. Earlier the species from eastern ghats Lonchura kelaarti vernayi was considered as separate sub species. The adult of the southwest Indian population, The Lonchura kelaarti jerdoni, has a stubby grey bill, dark brown upperparts with pale streaks; a blackish brown face and breast; and pinkish brown underparts. The Lonchura kelaarti kelaarti of Sri Lanka has scaly pattern on the underparts and vent with the pale almost whitish shaft streaks contrasting on the darker back. The species Lonchura kelaarti jerdoni is endemic to India. Typically in western ghats, these birds are seen in forests of Goa, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala. Though the records of this bird from western ghats further north of Goa are very less, this species have been recorded from evregreen forests of South Maharashtra south of Bhimashankar. Such as this specimen seen in Bhimashankar wild life sanctuary in Maharashtra. The species are seen in eastern ghat forests of Andhra pradesh, Orisa and Telangana.

The Vigors's sunbird or western crimson sunbird (Aethopyga vigorsii) is a species of sunbird which is endemic to the Western Ghats of India. The bird is seen up to about 900 m altitude. This is one of the endemic bird which is mainly seen in north Western Ghats and Konkan (north of Karwar) as compared to southern western ghats. There are about 15 species of birds from nectariniini in India. Out of these 15, 6 species are seen in western ghats. These five species include, purple rumped sunbird, purple sunbird, crimson backed sunbird, Vigor’s sunbird,Loten sunbird and small spiderhunter. As name suggests these sunbirds have a bill and tongue adapted to feed on nectar. They also eat small insects, spiders etc. The bill is very thin and long. They probe the corollas of flowers for nectar. The tongue is also very long and tubular and is used to draw the nectar from flowers. The Vigors's sunbird or western crimson sunbird is one of the largest sunbirds in India. The male bird’s crown, uppertail coverts, and tail is metallic green.Side of head, nape, mantle, back and shoulder are crimson. Rump is pale yellow. Malar stripe and cheek spot are metallic purple. Chin to upper breaset is streaked yellow. Rest of underparts is grey. The female bird is olive, yellow with grey underparts, and yellow rump. The species is distributed mainly in the northern Western Ghats but has been reported from the Nilgiris. It is named after Irish-born zoologist N.A. Vigors.

Scientific name of common rosefinch is Carpodacuserythrinus. This is a small Himalayan bird from finch family which has red plumage just like the red rose. It is slightly larger than the common house sparrow. The bird seems to have no name in Marathi. Out of about 15 rosefinch species, common rosefinch is one of the most prominent and common rosefinch species is India. The bird is about 14 to 15 cm in size (length from its beak to tail). The bird has short stocky conical beak. The beak is silvery grey. The shape of the beak is suitable for eating the seeds. The sexual dimorphism can be seen in this bird species. Sexual dimorphism is the difference in appearance between males and females of the same species, such as in colour, shape, size, and structure.

The male bird has red head, red breast and red rump. The upperparts are streaked with red wash. The underbody is also streaked in red extended on flanks and under belly. The erythrinus subspecies has less red wash on its upperparts and underbelly. However in case of roseatus subspecies, the upperparts and underbelly is extensively red as compared to the erythrinus subspecies. The erythrinus species has brown mantle with white underpants with red streaks restricted to breast on underpants. The lore of the male bird is brown. The legs and feet are dusky brown. Iris of the eyes is dark brown.

The female bird is olive grey in color. It has streaks on whitish underpants. It has buff median-covert wing bars. It has whitish greater-covert bars. The streaks seen in female erythrinus subspecies are faint as compared to roseatus subspecies. Both male and female have forked tail. So overall the erythrinus subspecies male and female are paler as compared to that seen in roseatus and ferghanensis subspecies. The juvenile birds are similar to female birds with prominent streaking.

There are five subspecies of common rosefinch, Carpodacus erythrinus. The five subspecies are Carpodacus erythrinus erythrinus ,Carpodacus erythrinus grebnitskii , Carpodacus erythrinus kubanensis , Carpodacus erythrinus ferghanensis and Carpodacus erythrinus roseatus. Out of these 5 subspecies, four subspecies are recorded in India. The subspecies seen in India are Carpodacuse rythrinus erythrinus ,Carpodacus erythrinus ferghanensis, Carpodacus erythrinus kubanensis and Carpodacus erythrinus roseatus. Carpodacus erythrinus erythrinus breeds North and east Europe, West Siberia North west Mongolia and Croatia, Romania, Ukraine, Kazakhstan in summer. It migrates to the plains of Indian subcontinent and north west Thailand in winter. Carpodacus erythrinus kubanensis breeds in Turkey, Caucasus, north Iran and Turkmenistan in summer and migrates to the plains of Indian subcontinent in winter. Carpodacus erythrinus ferghanensis breeds in mountains of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, West China, Afghanistan, North West Himalayas east to Kashmir) in summer and migrates to north west India in winter. Carpodacus erythrinus roseatus breeds in central and east Himalayas from Ladakh to North East India, North Myanmar, Tibetan plateau. It winters in India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,Vietnam and South east China.

The birds are seen in flocks in winter during the migration. The birds feed on nectar, small fruits and seeds. The bird breeds in summer from June to September. It builds its nest in bush using grass.