A New Bird Species added to the Bird list of India from Arunachal Pradesh

A New Bird Species added to the Bird list of India from Arunachal Pradesh

Pakyong , 11 April : On 8th February 2021, a team of scientists from Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Mumbai while exploring the high-altitude coniferous forests of Arunachal Pradesh photographed a rare species of bird, which was identified as Three-banded Rosefinch after detailed observations.

This species is resident of Southern China and vagrant in Bhutan. Thus, this is the first confirmed report of Three-banded Rosefinch from, Arunachal Pradesh, a new addition to the list of birds from India. The team recently published this finding in the journal Indian Birds.

The research team led by Dr. Girish Jathar, Assistant Director, BNHS, is conducting intensive surveys of finches across the Eastern Himalayas as a part of a ongoing study funded by Oracle. During one of these surveys, Atharva Singh and Himadri Shekar Mondal, Researchers from BNHS, first photographed a male and a female individual of this species at Sela Pass, Arunachal Pradesh, at an altitude of 3852 meters above sea level. This pair was seen with a flock of White-browed Rosefinch, a species commonly seen in this landscape. The species belongs to the family of finch, Fringillidae, which are seed-eating passerine birds with a distinctively conical bill.
Atharva Singh, lead author of the paper states that the Three-banded Rosefinch may be using the high altitude temperate coniferous forest of Arunachal Pradesh as a passage while migrating from China to Bhutan.

Thus this landscape is a potential corridor for this species. Mr. Himadri Sekar Mondal, who is second author of this paper added that little information available on the ecology of this species. Dr. Girish Jathar, Assistant Director, who is leading Climate Change and Himalaya Program at BNHS, mentions that the altitudinal record of this species sighting from India is higher than its previous known altitudinal records from China. Hence, it opens up interesting ecological research on the species in future, he added.

So far 1340 species have been reported from India and with the advent of technology and enthusiast birders reaching remote areas of the country, several bird species have been reported from India each year. Since 2016, the bird checklist of India has increased by 104 new species to India which were not reported previously. In 2021 five new species including Three-banded Rosefinch have been added to the checklist of India. In 2020 there were three new additions to the checklist of India.
This new addition of bird for India by scientists from the Bombay Natural History Society highlights the importance of intensive surveys in the least studied landscapes like Eastern. Himalayas.
For more details contact:
Dr. Girish Jathar, 9404264084 / 7972948094