Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 108(3), Sept-Dec 2011 230-244 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 1. RESETTLEMENT AND NESTING OF STREAK-THROATED SWALLOW HIRUNDO FLUVICOLA BLYTH, 1855 Madhur Mohan Ranga1, Vijay Kumar Koli23 and Chhaya Bhatnagar2,4 ‘Government College Malpura, Tonk 304 502, Rajasthan, India. Email: [email protected] 2 Aquatic Toxicology and Wildlife Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur 313 001, Rajasthan, India. Email: [email protected] “Email: [email protected] Streak-throated Swallow Hirundo fluvicola is a member cleans the walls every year, and the birds return every year of Family Hirundinidae, and resident to India. A highly to colonize the same site. gregarious bird it usually nests in close proximity of water Nest building material of birds has been studied with other swallows (Ali and Ripley 2001). Except its by many like Dewar (1909), Ali (1931), Mathew (1972), distribution (Grimmett et al. 1999; Ali and Ripley 2001), no Davis (1973), Clark and Mason (1985), Fauth et al. (1991), information is available from literature about its ecological Sharma (1991), and Brouwer and Komdeur (2004). and ethological aspects. Resettlement of Streak-throated Swallow at the same site A colony of Streak-throated Swallow at the might be influenced by proximity of agriculture lands and Government College Malpura, Tonk (Rajasthan), was waterbodies. Selection of nest site is an important task in destroyed by the College Estate Wing while renovating the colonial breeding (Frederick and Collopy 1989). Birds college building on October 15, 2010. The birds did not usually prefer their nesting sites within the foraging site so abandon the destructed nest site, instead after four days they as to reduce the number of trips to the nest. Closer feeding started rebuilding the nests at the same site. The nests were sites also help in increased vigilance of the nest and built on the underside of the roof of the building 9 m from minimise chances of predation of eggs and nestlings (Ishtiaq the ground. The colony was rebuilt in four months (Eds: et al. 2004). Korol and Hutto (1984) also showed the photographic evidence provided); for this the birds collected significance of different habitat around nesting sites of the mud from the waterline of a pond, about 400 m south-east. birds. Phenomenon of resettlement has also been observed Blobs of mud were deposited on the building wall to make in weaver birds (Alexandar and Pushparaj 2010). Further the first layer of the nest. The birds took about 15 to 20 days study is required on the social organization and ethological to deposit a single layer of mud, slowly constructing spacious aspects of this species, which will help to determine its chambers in each nest. After completing the nest, a tunnel management. of mud was added to the side of each nest. A total of 259 nests were counted in the colony. Ten incomplete nests in ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the colony were encroached by Passer domesticus. Destruction of one row of nests could not keep the We thank Dr. Satish Kumar Sharma, Range Forest birds away from the nesting site. Instead, they made two Officer, Sajjangarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Udaipur, Rajasthan, rows of nests at the same site. The estate wing of the College for valuable comments on the manuscript. REFERENCES Alexandar, R. & P. Pushparaj (2010): Resettlement of weaver birds Davis, T.A. (1973): Mud and dung plastering in Baya nest. J. Bombay (Ploceus philippinus) in Ousted Lake. Current Science 99( 1): 10. Nat. Hist. Soc. 70(1): 57-71. Ali, S. (1931): The nesting habits of the Baya (Ploceus philippinus). J. Dewar, D. (1909): The nesting habit of the Baya. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 34: 947-964. Soc. 19: 627-634. Ali, S. & S.D. Ripley (2001): Handbook of the Birds of India and Fauth, P.T., D.G. Krementz & J.E. Hines (1991): Ectoparasitism and Pakistan. Oxford University Press. Repr. Vol. 5. Pp. 64-66. the role of green nesting material in the European Starling. Brouwer, L. & J. Komdeur (2004): Green nesting material has a function Oecologia 88: 22-29. in mate attraction in the European Starling. Animal Behaviour Frederick, P.C. & M.W. Collopy (1989): The role of predation in 67(3): 539-548. determining reproductive success of colonially nesting wading Clark, L. & J.R. Mason (1985): Use of nest material as insecticidal birds in the Florida everglades. Condor 91: 860-867. anti-pathogenic agents by the European Starling. Oecologia 67: Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (1999): Birds of the Indian 169-176. Subcontinent. Oxford University Press, Delhi. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Ishtiaq, F., A.R. Rahmani, S. Javed & M.C. Coulter (2004): Nest-site Mathew, D.N. (1972): The ecology of the baya in Rajampet, Cuddapah characteristics of Black-necked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) district, Andhra Pradesh. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 69(1): and White-necked Stork (Ciconia episcopus) in Keoladeo National 188-191. Park, Bharatpur, India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 101(1): 90-95. Sharma, S.K. (1991): Plant life and weaver birds (with special reference Korol, I.J. & R.L. Hutto (1984): Factor affecting nest site location in to eastern Rajasthan). Ph.D. Thesis. University of Rajasthan, Glia Woodpeckers. Condor 86: 73-78. Rajasthan. 2. NILGIRI PIPIT ANTHUS NILGHIRIENSIS FEEDING IN FLOWING WATER 1 Harkirat Singh Sangha ‘B-27, Gautam Marg, Hanuman Nagar, Jaipur 302 021, Rajasthan, India. Email: [email protected] Nilgiri Pipit Anthus nilghiriensis is endemic to While watching birds near Rajmalai shola, Eravikulam grasslands in the Western Ghats mountain range in south¬ National Park, Kerala, on June 01, 2010,1 noticed a Nilgiri western India (Alstrom and Mild 2003). Pipit feeding in a shallow flow of water over a sprawling All members of the Motacillidae family feed largely granite rock. The clear water trickling down from the shola on small invertebrates. The wide, but long, and pointed bill was barely 1-3 cm deep except for some scattered puddles. of the pipits is perfectly adapted for picking prey from soft The bird was actively catching insects from the surface of sand, among rocks and pebbles, and in short vegetation. A the water. At times I observed it catching insects from deep huge array of invertebrates is eaten by pipits. Insects puddles by immersing its whole head into water. I observed predominate its diet, but a wide variety of other arthropods the pipit’s activity from 09:30 to 10:15 hrs without a break. A ranging from spiders, and other arachnids, to myriapods, large number of the catch was mostly picked from the surface worms, small terrestrial, freshwater or marine molluscs, and of the water. Obviously, it was capitalizing on abundant supply crustaceans are also consumed. Seeds and other vegetable of prey in the flowing water. material are eaten by many species of pipits (Simms 1992), While most wagtails, and those pipits with long claws but they form a small part of the diet. For many motacillids, that favour wetland habitats, are known to wade in shallow there is still rather little information available on the diet other water to pick aquatic invertebrates, the Nilgiri Pipit “forages than the fact that small insects and other invertebrates are on ground, in short grass” (Tyler 2004). eaten (Tyler 2004). Regarding its food and feeding habits, Ali and Ripley Pipits and wagtails are chiefly insect-eaters, flies (1998) mention “insects and small seeds” as its food but do especially adult Diptera are preferred. Beetles, grasshoppers not describe foraging habits. Nevertheless, like most and other ground-living insects, may also appear in pipit motacillids it appears to be catholic in its choice of insects diets. and also opportunistic. REFERENCES Ali, S. & S.D. Ripley (1998): Handbook of the Birds of India and Simms, E. (1992): British Larks, Pipits and Wagtails. Harper Collins, Pakistan. Second edition. Vol. 9. Robins to Wagtails. Oxford London. Pp. 102-119. University Press, Delhi. Pp. 271-273. Tyler, S J. (2004): Pipits and Wagtails. Pp. 710-723. In: del Hoyo, J., Alstrom, P. & K. Mild (2003): Pipits and Wagtails of Europe, Asia and A. Elliot & D.A. Christie (Eds): Handbook of the Birds of the North America. Identification and Systematics. Christopher World. Vol. 9. Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails. Lynx Edicions, Helm, London. Pp. 258-261. Barcelona. 3. DISCOVERY OF A LARGE HERONRY AT CHHATA, NEAR MATHURA, IN WESTERN UTTAR PRADESH 1'2 Rajneesh Dwevedi and Abdul Jamil Urfi1,3 'Department of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi, New Delhi 110 007, India. 2Email: rajneesh.conservation @gmail.com 3Email: [email protected] The Delhi region has several heronries (Urfi 1993) of premises of the Delhi Zoo (Urfi 1997) and Sultanpur National which the most well-known are the ones located inside the Park (Urfi et al. 2007). In antiquity, other heronries, now J. Bombay Nat. Hist Soc., 108 (3), Sept-Dec 2011 231