Tawny-breasted Wren-Babbler Spelaeornis longicaudatus in the Jaintia Hills, and an update on its status in MeghalayaThe Tawny-breasted Wren-Babbler Spelaeornis longicaudatus is one of the range-restricted Spelaeornis wren-babblers restricted to the hills of north-eastern India. Though Ali & Ripley (1987) included Cachar and Manipur in its range, Rasmussen & Anderton (2012) restricted the distribution to Khasi Hills in Meghalaya, discounting previous specimens from Manipur and Nagaland as misidentified Naga Wren-Babbler S. chocolatinus. The Cachar specimen remains untraceable and, hence, neither Rasmussen & Anderton (2012) nor Collar & Robson (2019) included Cachar in its range. The species is classified as ‘Vulnerable’ under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (BirdLife International 2017). Here we present a record of the species from the Jaintia Hills, which are further eastwards of the Khasi Hills, towards the hills of Cachar.

On the 05 April 2018, RG was trekking in the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, documenting the biodiversity of the region on behalf of the Makunda Nature Club. At Chyrmang (25.43°N, 92.24°E; c.1,365 m asl) he was in a moist evergreen forest with an undergrowth of ferns and mosses. At 1030 h, he noted two obscure brown birds foraging in the undergrowth, and on the ground, and was able to take several photographs. The birds (presumed to be male and female) were observed catching prey, probably small caterpillars, and carrying them in their beaks for some distance, behind the cover of grass. The birds did that thrice, and it was assumed that they were probably feeding young; RG left the area hastily to avoid disturbing them. Both birds were brown above and buff-colored below, and had a grey tinge on their brown faces, red irises, blackish bills, and light brown legs. The birds were identified as Tawny-breasted Wren-Babblers from the photographs [36–37].

This species has been photographed in Shillong, Cherrapunjee, Mawphlang, and other locations in the West Khasi Hills—but not in the Jaintia Hills. There are no documented records from any other locations in the Jaintia Hills either, but Anwaruddin Choudhury observed it at two locations between Jowai forest (wildlife) residential complex and Syntu Ksiar in 1997 (in litt., e-mail to Praveen J., dated 31 January 2019). We list below, all the records documented in public databases: Oriental Bird Images (2019) (Table 1), eBird (2019) (Table 2), Xento-canto Foundation (2019) (Table 3), and Vertnet (2019) (Table 4); all are from the West Khasi Hills, which is its stronghold. Some of the entries in these tables refer to the same record.

Table 1. Records in Oriental Bird Images

S. No Observer Month Year Location

1 James Eaton January 2007 Shillong

2 Sharad Sridhar January 2010 Cherrapunjee

3 Shashank Dalvi March 2012 Cherrapunjee

4 Rofikul Islam May 2012 Cherrapunjee

5 Jainy Kuriakose December 2015 Cherrapunjee

6 Firoz Hussain May 2017 Cherrapunjee

7 Rejaul Karim November 2017 Cherrapunjee

8 Rofikul Islam January 2018 Cherrapunjee

9 Sapon Baruah September 2018 Cherrapunjee

10 Iftiaque Hussain October 2018 Shillong

11 Jyotirmoy Baishya October 2018 Mawphlang

Table 2. Records in eBird

S. No Observer Month Year Location

1 Pritam Barua February 2014 Mawphlang

2 Barbara deWitt May 2016 Duwan Sing Syiem

3 Taksh Sangwan March 2016 Mawkdok

4 Craig Robson April 2018 Mawkdok

5 Rofikul Islam June 2018 Mawkdok

6 Peter Boesman March 2018 Mawkdok

7 Howard Laidlaw March 2018 Mawkdok

8 Rofikul Islam January 2018 Mawkdok

9 Craig Robson April 2018 Devil’s Road

10 Rofikul Islam April 2017 Sowa-shela Road

11 Saurabh Sawant October 2013 Nohkalikai Road

12 Ramit Singal October 2013 Nohkalikai Road

13 Rustom Basumatary August 2016 Cherrapunjee

14 John Alcock November 2004 Cherrapunjee

Table 3. Records in Xeno-canto (total 18 recordings)

S. No Observer Month Year Location

1 Lonnie Bregman March 2017 Mawkdok

2 Peter Boesman March 2018 Shillong-Cherrapunjee

3 George Wagner April 2017 Mawkdok

4 Pritam Baruah February 2014 Mawphlang

5 Mathias Ritschard March 2006 Shillong

6 Mathias Ritschard February 2006 Shillong

36–37. Tawny-breasted Wren-Babbler.

All pics: Rejoice Gassah

28 Indian BIRDS Vol. 15 No. 1 (Publ. 10 May 2019)

Table 4. Records in Vertnet*

S. No Location Number of specimens1 Mawphlang 382 Cherrapunjee 33 Shillong 54 Pynursia 85 Laitlyngot 116 Nangkram 27 Unknown locality in W. Khasi Hills. 48 Probably in W. Khasi Hills* 12

* Specimens from NHM, London in Vertnet have no district level locality details.

From the above data, it is clear that this species has been observed all year round, and therefore is a resident, only in the Khasi Hills. Hence, the present observation is the first evidence of its presence in the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya. Although the nest and chicks were not observed, the behaviour of the birds strongly suggested that they were feeding chicks. The location described in this article is about 40–50 km from the nearest previously described location, which significantly increases the Extent of Occurrence (EoO) of this species. It is possible that this new information may lead to a modification in the IUCN status of this species. More observations from the Jaintia Hills are required to understand the true extent of its distribution.

AcknowledgmentsWe wish to acknowledge with thanks permission given to RG for visiting the forest by Mrs Lato, DFO, Jaintia Hills. We also thank Pelevizo Meyase for accompanying him and the residents of Chyrmang village for local guidance. We also wish to acknowledge the provision of equipment (camera, GPS) by the Makunda Nature Club run by the Makunda Christian Leprosy and General Hospital.

ReferencesAli, S., & Ripley, S. D., 1987. Compact handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan

together with those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. 2nd ed. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. i–xlii, 1 l., 1–737, 52 ll.

BirdLife International. 2017. Spelaeornis longicaudatus (amended version of 2016 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T22716137A110519478. Website URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-1.RLTS.T22716137A110519478.en. [Accessed on 18 December 2018.]

eBird. 2019. Website URL: https://ebird.org/map/tbwbab1?neg=true&env.minX=&env.minY=&env.maxX=&env.maxY=&zh=false&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=all&byr=1900&eyr=2018. [Accessed on 18 December 2018.]

Collar, N., & Robson, C., 2019. Tawny-breasted Wren-babbler (Spelaeornis longicaudatus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D. A., & de Juana, E., (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Website URL: https://www.hbw.com/node/59469. [Accessed on 31 March 2019).

Oriental Bird Images. 2019. Website URL: http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_Image_ID=153226&Bird_ID=1545&Bird_Family_ID=&Location= [Accessed on 18 December 2018.]

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 vols. Pp. 1–378; 1–683.

VertNet. 2019. Website URL: http://portal.vertnet.org/search?q=Spelaeornis++longicaudatus. [Accessed on 18 December 2018.]

Xeno-canto Foundation. 2019. Website URL: https://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Spelaeornis-longicaudatus. [Accessed on 18 December 2018.]

– Rejoice Gassah & Vijay Anand IsmavelRejoice Gassah, Makunda Christian Hospital, Karimganj District 788727, Assam, India. [RG]

E-mail: joicesatisfy@gmail.com

Vijay Anand Ismavel, Makunda Christian Hospital, Karimganj District 788727, Assam, India. [VAI] E-mail: ivijayanand@yahoo.in (Corresponding author)

Asian Stubtail Urosphena squameiceps in the Karimganj District of Assam, and its status in the Indian SubcontinentOn 09 November 2018, RG visited the Badsaitilla Reserve Forest, a low-altitude dipterocarp forest, near Dosdewa village (24.35°N, 92.35°E) in the Lowairpoa Block of Karimganj District in Assam, as a participant of the biodiversity documentation work being done by the Makunda Nature Club. At 0710 h he noted a small bird, similar in appearance to a warbler, inside a bush.

Its tail was very short and it had a prominent white supercilium. The bird was perched on a twig and was preening itself. He took several photographs [38]. The bird also uttered several clear calls, which were recorded using a Sony Sound Recorder ICD UX560F (Fig. 1; https://www.xeno-canto.org/443886). Once the images were processed it was clear that the bird was an Asian Stubtail Urosphena squameiceps. On 13 November RG re-visited a neighboring location of the same forest and once again observed the stubtail, which was foraging low inside a bush. He photographed it at 0839 h. Subsequently, RG and VA visited both locations, as well as the surrounding forest areas on the 02 December 2018, but could not locate the species.

38. Asian Stubtail photographed in Assam.

Fig. 1. Sonogram of the Asian Stubtail’s vocalisations.

The Asian Stubtail is presumed to be a winter vagrant to the Indian Subcontinent with not more than ten photographic records till date (Table 1). However, repeated observations from the lowland woodlands of the eastern regions of the Indian Subcontinent indicate that this might be a rare but regular winter visitor.

We thank the Makunda Christian Hospital, which runs the Makunda Nature Club, for the provision of equipment (camera, sound recorder, and GPS) used during this documentation. We also acknowledge the assistance of Shameem Rizwan and Syed Shahnoor Imam, from Bangladesh, who sent us exact details of their observations.

ReferencesBaruah, P., 2015. Birding in the North Cachar Hills of Assam. Indian BIRDS 10 (2):

46–50.

Rejoice Gassah

29Correspondence