Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2023 | 15(7): 23615–23617
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8453.15.7.23615-23617
#8453 | Received 27
March 2023 | Final received 25 May 2023 | Finally accepted 30 June 2023
First record of Horned Grebe Podiceps auritus (Linnaeus,
1758) (Aves: Passeriformes: Podicipedidae) from Jammu
& Kashmir, India
Bilal Nasir Zargar
1, Umer Nazir 2 & Zakir Hussain Najar 3
1 Wildlife Conservation Fund (WCF),
Namlabal, Pampore, Jammu
& Kashmir 192121, India.
2 Wildlife SOS, D-210, Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024, India.
3 Department of Zoology, University
of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir
190006, India.
1 studyflora@gmail.com, ² umerwagay1@gmail.com,
³ zakirnajar1@gmail.com (Corresponding author)
Editor: H. Byju,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Date
of publication: 26 July 2023 (online & print)
Citation: Zargar, B.N., U. Nazir & Z.H. Najar (2023). First record of Horned Grebe Podiceps auritus (Linnaeus,
1758) (Aves: Passeriformes: Podicipedidae) from Jammu
& Kashmir, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(7): 23615–23617. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8453.15.7.23615-23617
Copyright: © Zargar et al. Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Wildlife Conservation Fund (WCF), Wildlife SOS, and University Grants Commision
(UGC).
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors are highly thankful to Wular Conservation and Management Authority (WUCA), Jammu
& Kashmir, for granting the necessary permission to carry out birdwatching
in Wular lake. A special thanks go out to Mudasir Mehmood Malik (Divsional
forest officer Bandipora), Intisar Suhail (Wildlife
warden Shopian), and Showket
Maqbool, for providing guidance, and support, in identifying this vulnerable
bird.
The Horned Grebe Podiceps auritus, a
little diving waterbird in the family Podicipedidae and is found in North America and Eurasia. It
breeds in eastern Siberia, western Europe, and Eurasia (Stedman 2020). The bird
is a vagrant in India and Pakistan, and migrates during winter (Rasmussen &
Anderton 2012; Brraich & Singh 2021). It is
reliant on a watery environment throughout the whole year and nests close to
the edges of ponds and marshes that have patches of open water and vegetation
that emerge from the water. The bird is monogamous and very possessive of its
territory. After hatching, the young ones are sub precocial and require care
for many days, during which they are fed and kept warm by parents (Stedman
2020). During summer, it primarily feeds on arthropods, including adults
and larvae of insects, particularly beetles, dragonflies, mayflies,
damselflies, caddisflies, and water bugs. In winter, it mainly forages on
fishes and crustaceans except in Europe. In North America, it feeds
predominantly on macroinvertebrates (Stedman 2000), while sticklebacks of the
family Gasterosteidae are its key prey in Europe (Fjeldså 1973).
The Horned Grebe is widespread in
Europe, however, it seems to be relatively uncommon throughout Asia, where it
has been considerably less studied; population trends are not known (Stedman
2020). Populations of Horned Grebe are decreasing all over the world (Vlug & Fjeldså 1990),
currently it is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ by the IUCN Red List (Birdlife
International 2018). The exact causes of the population decline are unclear, it
is quite possible that it is connected to the human disturbance, forestry
activities around breeding grounds, competition with sympatric grebes, egg
depredation by European Mink Mustela lutreola, Raccoon Procyon lotor,
& Hooded Crow Corvus cornix, killing by inclement weather during migration,
and loss of natural habitat (del Hoyo et al. 1992;
Stedman 2020).
The Wular
Lake is an Important Bird Area (IBA) and a well-known Ramsar
site in the world. It has a total area of 13,292 ha and is situated about
34 km to the north-west of Srinagar. It is an essential habitat for both
migratory as well as resident water birds. The important migratory waterfowl
species, including the Common Teal Anas crecca,
Pintail Anas acuta, Shoveler
Anas clypeata, Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna,
Ruddy Shelduck Tadorna ferruginea,
Red-crested Pochard Netta rufina, Common Pochard Aythya
ferina, Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, Greylag Geese Anser anser, and Long-tailed Duck Clangula
hyemalis, find the lake to be an ideal wintering
location.
The first record of Horned Grebe
from India was on 28 December 1993, near Ramnagar,
Uttar Pradesh (Drijvers 1995). This was followed by
several records from northern India (Brraich &
Singh 2021). In India, Horned grebe was mostly seen in Dighal
Wetland, Haryana (Ahlawat 2018), and one sighting was
also observed in Borit Lake, Hunza
Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan on 14 December 2016 (Shah 2016; Brraich
& Singh 2021). There is no previous published evidence on the presence of
Horned Grebe in Jammu & Kashmir including Ladakh
(Suhail et al. 2020). Here we report the first record of a group of three
Horned Grebes with photographic evidence (Images 2–5). The birds were sighted
on 06 March 2023 at 1030 h at Wular Lake of Jammu
& Kashmir (Image 1). The birds were feeding and diving during observation.
The first two authors successfully got photographs and a short video. The bird
was recorded at 34.35327 N, 74.63724 E, with an altitude of 1,597 m. In
contrary, the Horned Grebes were seen in December–February in previous sightings
observed in other parts of India (Brraich & Singh
2021).
The bird was small in size (31–38
cm) and the bright orange eye suggested (Image 2–5) that it is either a
Black-necked or a Horned Grebe. The longish neck, white mark on the lore, head
pattern and white tip of the bill differentiate it from the Black-necked Grebe
(Mullarney et al. 1999; Prasad 2008). The colour pattern surrounding the eye was also distinctive,
the black cap reached only to the centre of the eye,
and the line that ran back from the eye was straight. The bill was pale, but
the top edge of the upper mandible had a visible black edge, which is a
characteristic feature of Horned Grebe.
Regular monitoring of Wular Lake and its surroundings is necessary for
wetland conservation and eco-restoration.
For
images - - click here for full PDF
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