88 SHORT NOTES Forktail 32 (2016) Our records of food deliveries to the Luzon nest also revealed FMNH (Field Museum of Natural History) (2010) Synopsis of Philippine important differences between Luzon and Mindanao. In terms of mammals. Downloaded from http://archive.fieldmuseum.org/ biomass contribution, the Northern Luzon Giant Cloud Rat was the philippine_mammals/ on 15/04/2016. most important prey species on Luzon, unlike Mindanao where the Gonzales, R. B. (1968) A study of the breeding biology and ecology of the Long-tailed Macaques made up the highest biomass contribution monkey-eating eagle. SillimanJ. 15:461-491. (36.5%). In numerical terms the Northern Luzon Giant Cloud Rat was Ibanez, J. C. (2007) Philippine Eagle Pithecophaga jefferyi breeding also one of the top prey species on Luzon, in place of the Philippine biology, diet, behavior, nest characteristics and longevity estimate in Flying Lemur Cynocephalus volans and Mindanao Flying Squirrel Mindanao Island. MSc Biology Thesis. Downloaded from https://www. Petinomys crinitus, the most numerous prey items on Mindanao researchgate.net on 28/12/2015. (Kennedy 1985, Ibanez etal. 2003, Ibanez 2007); these two species Ibanez, J. C., Miranda, H. C., Balaquit-lbanez, G., Afan, D. & Kennedy, R. S. are absent from Luzon. On Luzon, reptiles numerically accounted for (2003) Notes on the breeding behavior of a Philippine Eagle pair at 37.4% of the prey items, compared with less than 10% on Mindanao Mount Sinaka, Central Mindanao. Wilson Bull. 115: 333-336. (Kennedy 1985, Ibahez2007), suggesting a greater variety of available Kennedy, R. S. (1977) Notes on the biology and populations status of the prey on Luzon. Finally, it is noteworthy that no domestic animals Monkey-eating Eagle of the Philippines. Wilson Bull. 89:1-20. were recorded from the Luzon nest, contrary to the observations of Kennedy, R. S. (1985) Conservation research of the Philippine Eagle. Nat. Concepcion etal. (2006) and Ibanez (2007) on Mindanao. Geogr. Soc. Res. Rep. 18:401-414. The differences in both nest location (altitude and habitat) Kinnaird, M. F. & O'Brien, T. G. (2007) The ecology and conservation of Asian and breeding period discovered during the investigation of hornbills: farmers of the forest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. this first confirmed breeding record on Luzon suggest that Local Government Unit (LGU) Calanasan & Community Environment some temporal and rangeadjustments may be needed in ongoing and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) Calanasan (2011) Adoption of nest search efforts in the region. More significantly, the noteworthy indigenous cultural practices in implementing Executive Order No. location of the two nests so far discovered in pristine forest interiors, 23: the Calanasan way. as well as the apparent variety and sufficiency of wild prey, together Marti, C. D. (1987) Raptor food habit studies. In B. A. Giron-Pendleton, B. strengthen the need to maintain and enhance existing local A. Millsa., K. W. Cline & D. M. Bird, eds. Raptor management technique conservation strategies for the area. manual. Washington: Wildlife Federation. Ogilvie-Grant, W. R. (1897) On the birds of the Philippine islands. Part IX. Acknowledgements The islands of Samar and Leite. Ibis (7)3: 209-250. We dedicate this paper to the late Mayor Elias K. Bulut Sr. for his PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services political will to conserve Calanasan forests. San Roque Power Administration) (2011) Climate change in the Philippines. Downloaded Corporation and the Phil.Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation, from https://www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph on 22/08/2016. Inc. funded our expeditions. We thank the local governments of PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Calanasan and Apayao, the Department of Environmentand Natural Administration) (2015) Seasonal climate outlook. Downloaded from Resources, A.M. Oxales III, P.S. Balicao, A.A. Allado, R.M. Masalay and https://www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph on 22/08/2016. G.S. Opiso. We also thank E. Sy, B. Santos and A. Diesmos for reptile Sadao, N. C. (2010) Lapat system: an indigenous natural resource prey identification and biomass computation. management system of the Isnags in Apayao. Downloaded from http:// agris.fao.org/on 13/10/2016. References BirdLife International (2016) Species factsheet: Pithecophaga jefferyi. Tatiana Rose C. ABANO & Dennis Joseph I. SALVADOR, Philippine Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 07/08/2016. Eagle Foundation, Malagos, Baguio District, Davao City 8000, Bueser, G. L., Bueser, K. G., Afan, D. S„ Salvador, D. I., Grier, J. W„ Kennedy, Philippines. Email: [email protected] (corresponding author) R. S. & Miranda, H. C. (2003) Distribution and nesting density of the Philippine Eagle Pithecophaga jefferyi on Mindanao Island, Philippines: Jayson C. IBANEZ, University of the Philippines Mindanao, Mintal, what do we know after 100 years? Ibis 145:130-135. Davao City 8022 and Philippine Eagle Foundation, Malagos, Baguio Concepcion, C. C., Sulapas, M. & Ibanez, J. C. (2006) Notes on food habits District, Davao City 8000, Philippines. and breeding and nestling behavior of Philippine Eagles in Mount Apo Natural Park, Mindanao, Philippines. Banwa 3: 81-95. First record of Yellow-bellied Tit Pardaliparus venustulus in Russia suggests a significant range extension of a species formerly endemic to China P. FETTING, 5. THORN, M. PACKERT & W. HEIM The Yellow-bellied Tit Pardaliparus venustulus, classified as Least buildings (Plate 1). The following measurements were recorded: Concern (BirdLife International 2015), is a species of forests and wing length 63.5 mm, p8 length 48.0 mm, tarsus length 17.0 mm, woodlands previously thought to be endemic to south-east and bill (to skull) 10.6 mm, fat score 2, muscle score 3, weight 11.0 g. north-east China (Gosler & Clement 2016). Since 2011, a standardised Body feathers were collected for genetic analyses. Body dimensions bird ringing programme has been carried out as part of the Amur matched the literature values for P. venustulus: wing (of male) 61-68 Bird Project at Muraviovka Park, Far East Russia (Heim & Smirenski mm, tarsus 14.2-18.0 mm, weight 9.0-12.5 g (Harrap& Quinn 1996). 2013). The Muraviovka Park for Sustainable Land Use (49.874°N Whilst this bird was being ringed, a pair of adult Yellow-bellied Tits 127.704°E) is a non-government-managed nature reserve, about were photographed near the mist-net (Plates 2 & 3). The ringed bird 50 km south-east of Blagoveshchensk, Amurskaya oblast (Heim was recaptured (once) at lOhOO the following day. 2016). It covers 6,500 ha of wetlands with small deciduous forest The feather samples were used for genetic barcoding analysis islands, along the middle reaches of the Amur River. with the standard marker cytochrome-oxidase I (COI). DNA was On 25 September 2013 at 11 hOO, a juvenile Yellow-bellied Tit extracted using the sbeadex® forensic kit (LGC Genomics) according was caught in a mist-net located in a deciduous grove close to farm to the manufacturer's instructions. Standard bird primers and PCR Forktail 32 (2016) SHORT NOTES 89 N R O H T S. Y B S E G A M L I L A Plate 1. Juvenile Yellow-bellied Tit Pardaliparus venustulus caught Plate 2. Male Yellow-bellied Tit, Muraviovka Park, Far East Russia, 25 in a mist-net located in a deciduous grove close to farm buildings, September 2013. Muraviovka Park, Far East Russia, 25 September 2013. profile for amplification were taken from Hebert etal. (2004). PCR products were purified using ExoSap-IT (GE Healthcare), adding 0.1 ml ExoSap-IT solution in 4 ml water to each sample and the sequencing of the PCR products was performed with BigDyeTM 3.1 Dye Terminator Cycle Sequencing Kits (Applied Biosystems), according to the manufacturers' instructions. PCR products were purified using Sephadex (GE Healthcare), and sequenced in both directions in an ABI 3130x1 DNA sequencer. The sequence was submitted to GenBank and is available under accession no KX687333; for comparison newly generated sequences of Willow Tits Poecile montanus and Marsh Tits Poecile palustris: KX687334- KX687340). We received a 549 bp-long COI sequence from feather extracts processed in a BLAST search at GenBank. Our sequence matched three further COI sequences of Pardaliparus venustulus. Two of these sequences were backed by specimens that originated from the Chinese breeding range in Shaanxi (HM185325, specimen IOZ1945) and Hubei (HM185326, specimen IOZ2806), both from Dai etal. Plate 3. Female Yellow-bellied Tit, Muraviovka Park, Far East Russia, 25 (2010); a third was not referenced to a voucher specimen (KP313823 September 2013. mtDNA genome). In the distance tree of BLAST results, all P. 1992). In the Republic of Korea the first individual was recorded 21 venustulus sequences were sister to a clade including four sequences October 2005 (Moores 2005) and since then, the species has been of P. elegans, a close relative of P. venustulus (Martens etal. 2006). For seen regularly there, with singing males observed in May (Choi et illustration of these results a neighbour-joining tree reconstructed at. 2011). According to Moores & Kim (2014), there is evidence that with MEGA 6.06 (Tamura etal. 2013) is provided (Figure 1). the species has colonised the north of the Korean peninsula and Evidently a Yellow-bellied Tit family was observed at Muraviovka probably breeds in the Republic of Korea (N. Moores pers. comm.). Park, although the nearest known breeding area is about On 1 December 2009 and later in spring 2010 the first birds were 1,500 km to the south-west. The species is thought to be more or recorded from Japan (Ikenaga 2014); since then the species has been less sedentary, and indeed it seems rather unlikely that the family seen in different parts of the country (Y. Watabe pers. comm.) and migrated a distance of 1,500 km to the north-east. Thus there two birds were ringed in 2015 (K. Ozaki pers. comm.). These records might be unknown breeding populations in areas further to the all suggest an eastward range expansion and further breeding north-east of the known range, closer to the Russian border or records of the Yellow-bellied Tit outside China may be anticipated. within Russia. Since 1985 the species has been regularly observed in large numbers in late April-May and late September-November at Acknowledgements Beidaihe, Hebei province, northern China, indicating either a change We thank Sergei M. Smirenski, Svetlana Yakovenko and the in movements across this area or a range expansion (Williams etal. Muraviovka Park staff for supporting the Amur Bird Project since Figure 1. Neighbour-joining tree of COI barcode sequences of the Yellow-bellied Tit Pardaliparus venustulus and allies; bootstrap support greater than 50 indicated at nodes; the Muraviovka specimen in bold letters (VF02712); sequence identifiers either refer to GenBank accession numbers or specimens in collections (IOZ= Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; USNM= Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA; UWBM= Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Seattle, USA); one further Marsh Tit Poecile palustris sequence was also 0.01 from a bird ringed at Muraviovka (VN98847). 90 SHORT NOTES Forktail 32 (2016) 2011. Thanks also go to all the 2013 autumn season volunteers, Ikenaga, H., Kawakami, K. & Yanagisawa, N. (2014) A note on the newly particularly Sebastian Seibold, Viktoria Mader and Christine Thorn, accepted species and subspecies in the check-list of Japanese birds, and to Nial Moores, Kiyoaki Ozaki and Yoshiki Watabe for helpful seventh revised edition. Japanese J. Orn. 63:96-149. comments. This study was supported by the Oriental Bird Club, Martens, J., Tietze, D. T. & Sun Y. H. (2006) Molecular phylogeny of Parus Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft e.V. and Forderkreis fur (Periparus), a Eurasian radiation of tits (Aves: Passeriformes: Paridae). Allgemeine Naturkunde (Biologie) e.V. Zool. Abhandl. Staatl. Mus. Tierk. Dresden 55:103-120. Moores, N. (2005) Yellow-bellied Tit Parus venustulus. Downloaded from References http://www.birdskorea.org/Birds/Significant_Records/Rarity_Reports/ Bird Life International (2015) Species factsheet: Parus venustulus. Downloaded BK-RR-Yellow-bellied-Tit-2005-10.shtml. on 07/08/2016. from http://www.birdlife.org on 10/08/2015. Moores, N„ Kim A. & Kim R. (2014) Status of birds 2014. Available at http:// Choi C. Y., Park J. G.: Moores, N.: Kim E. M., Kang C. W., Nam H. Y. & Kim S. M. www.birdskorea.org/Habitats/Yellow-Sea/YSBR/Downloads/Birds- (2011) The recent increase in the Redbilled Starling Sturnus sericeus in Korea-Status-of-Birds-2014.pdf. the Republic of Korea. Forktail 27: 89-91. Tamura, K„ Stecher, G., Peterson, D., Filipski, A. & Kumar, S. (2013) MEGA6: Dai C„ Chen K„ Zhang R„ Yang X., Yin Z„ Tian H„ Zhang Z„ Hu Y. & Lei F. (2010) Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 6.0. Mol. Biol. Evol. Molecular phylogenetic analysis among species of Paridae, Remizidae 30: 2725-2729. and Aegithalos based on mtDNA sequences of COI and cyt b. Chinese Williams, M. D., Carey, G .J., Duff, D. G. & Weishu X. (1992) Autumn bird Birds 1: 112-123. migration at Beidaihe, China, 1986-1990. Forktail 7: 3-55. Gosler, A. & Clement, P. (2016). Yellow-bellied Tit (Pardaliparus venustulus). In J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie & E. de Juana, eds. Handbook P. FETTING, GoethestraBe 1, 17489 Greifswald, Germany. of the birds of the world alive. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/59875 on 07/08/2016). S. THORN, Field Station Fabrikschleichach, Department of Animal Harrap, S. & Quinn, D. (1996) Tits, nuthatches & treecreepers. London: Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter University of Wurzburg, Christopher Helm. Glashiittenstr, 5, 96181 Rauhenebrach, Germany. Hebert, P. D. N., Stoeckle, M. Y., Zemlak, T. S. & Francis, C. M. (2004) Identification of birds through DNA barcodes. PLoS Biol. 2: e312. M. PACKERT, Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen, Heim, W. (2016) A survey of breeding waterbird communities on lakes and Konigsbrucker LandstraBe 159, 01109 Dresden, Germany. other waterbodies on the middle reaches of the Amur River valley near Blagoveshensk, Amur province, Far East Russia. BirdingASIA 25:98-103. W. HEIM, Amur Bird Project, RoseggerstraBe 14, 14471 Potsdam AND Heim, W. &Smirenski, S. M. (2013) The Amur bird project at Muraviovka Park Institute of Landscape Ecology, Munster University, HeisenbergstraBe 2, in Far East Russia. BirdingASIA 19: 31-33. 48149Munster, Germany. Email: [email protected] (corresponding author). First breeding record of Slat Bunting Emberiza siemsseni YUNBIAO HU & YUEHUASUN The Slaty Bunting Emberiza siemsseni is a range-restricted Chinese limitations of the camera, we obtained detailed incubation data only endemic, breeding in the highlands of south Gansu province, south on 10July.From06h00to 18h00 we observed 12change-overs,and Shaanxi province and west and north-east Sichuan province (Zheng both sexes spent similar times incubating: 349 minutes (male) and 2011). Although not rare and designated as Least Concern by Bird Life 352 minutes (female). Three eggs hatched on 13 July, when the first International (2015), very little is known about its breeding ecology images were captured of the adults feeding the nestlings, giving (Madge 2015). Here, we describe for the first time the Slaty Bunting's an incubation period of at least 10 days. One egg failed to hatch, eggs, nest, nest-site and breeding behaviour. and it was examined after the nestlings had left the nest: the yoke On 3 July 2014 we found a Slaty Bunting nest in Lianhuashan was still complete and no embryo development was evident, so we Nature Reserve, Kangle county, Gansu province (34.952°N 103.768°E). deduced that the egg was unfertilised. The nest was located 0.3 m from a small path in shrub-land and was Both sexes reared the nestlings, but detailed provisioning positioned 0.4 m above the ground on a 0.7 m tall spruce sapling. rates could not be obtained because of the two-minute intervals About 50% of the nest site area (defined as a 5 m radius around the between consecutive triggered events on the camera. We nest) was covered by shrubs, dominated by willows Salix sp., with watched 10 feeding sessions and observed that the parents an average height of 3.5 m. mainly fed insects and insect larvae to their nestlings, with some When found, the nest contained four eggs. No further eggs were spiders and other small arthropods. Ten days after hatching, the laid, hence incubation was already underway. The eggs were oval in plumage of the nestlings resembled that of the female in colour shape and creamy white in colour, with irregular markings slightly and appearance (Plate 2). The young birds remained in the same concentrated at the large end (Plate 1). We weighed the eggs to the vicinity at least until 29 July because the adults were observed nearest 0.01 g, using a portable digital balance, and measured the carrying food near the nest site every day. length and breadth to the nearest 0.01 mm, using digital vernier Recent phylogenetic analyses indicate that the Slaty Bunting is calipers. Mean egg size was 17.93 ±0.38 mm x 14.10 ±0.11 mm, with a sister species to Yellow-throated Bunting E. elegans (Alstrom et a mean weight of 1.89 ± 0.07 g. at. 2008). Compared with the Yellow-throated Bunting (Chen etal. The outer layer of the circular, cup-shaped nest was made 2015), our results suggest that the Slaty Bunting has smaller eggs mainly of broad leaves and grass-stems, with a lining of soft, thin and males may take a greater part in incubation. However, as we grass-stems and livestock hairs. The inner diameter of the nest was only observed one nest of the Slaty Bunting, we must be cautious 57.7 mm and the outer diameter 84.4 mm, with an inner depth of in any general statement regarding its breeding biology. 44.7 mm and total height of 65.5 mm. Although Slaty Bunting is not a threatened species, its breeding We placed an infrared-triggered camera nearthe nestto monitor range is relatively narrow; the Lianhuashan Nature Reserve is parental activities. However, because of rainy weather and the about 150 km north of the previously known breeding range of