How interviewing cattle grazers led to a new bird recorded in Assam

Guwahati: A new bird record was found in Assam while conducting interviews with cattle grazers. 

This happened when Biswajit Chakder and Girish Jathar, researchers from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), were interviewing cattle grazers at Sishu Chapori in the Sadiya area under the Tinsukia district of Assam. 

“We wanted to understand their knowledge about the critically-endangered Bengal Florican bird. We asked them about the possible anthropogenic threats to the bird and its grassland habitat in that area. The questionnaire also included questions on how the cattle graziers are utilising grasslands for their livelihood and their perception on conservation of the bird,” Biswajit Chakder, an Assam resident who works with BNHS, told EastMojo.

This happened on December 18, 2020, when Chakder observed a flock of Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in an open area near a cattle shed while conducting interviews of cattle grazers at Sishu Chapori in Sadiya area under the Tinsukia district of Assam.

“One bird in the flock appeared different and was assumed to be an Indian Pied Starling (Gracupica contra) with some physical deformity. The bird was photographed for further identification. The bird, the size of a starling, had a uniform blackish breast and belly, buffy-white rump, and brown wings. The head was black with prominent white cheeks and forehead. The bill was orange with brownish black tips, and the base of the upper mandible and the legs were yellow-orange,” Chakder said.

Based on these physical characteristics, it was identified as a White-cheeked Starling.

“The bird diversity is comparatively lower in the cattle sheds and birders generally don’t come to these places,” he said.

The White-cheeked Starling (Spodiopsar cineraceus) is a migratory bird. It spends the winter in southern China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; it is vagrant in Myanmar, Thailand, and the Philippines. It breeds in eastern Asia from south-eastern Transbaikal to the south of Russia Far East and southwards to central and eastern Mongolia, and also in north China from east Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, and eastwards to Korea, southern Sakhalin, southern Kuril Islands, and most of Japan.

The species occurs in flat lowlands and is common up to 1,200 m. The bird arrives in its breeding areas by March-early April.

On April 15, 2021, a flock of 18 White-cheeked Starlings was observed foraging at 07:35 hrs in the Pilomukh area of D’Ering Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh. The birds were foraging alongside the Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva) in an extensively grazed grassland near a cattle shed. Both the male and female of the White-cheeked Starling were observed in this flock.

There are no published records of this species from Assam and East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. However, it has been recorded from a few high-altitude areas of Arunachal Pradesh during winter.

During autumn and winter, these birds visit farmlands in large flocks to forage for insects.

Interestingly, both the sites where the bird was observed were extensively grazed by the livestock. Vagrant Common Starlings were also recorded in these sites near cattle sheds.

“Monitoring of extensively grazed grasslands near livestock sheds in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh could give more insights about the occurrence of this species in these two states of India,” the researchers said.

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