Birds of the Indian Subcontinent

birdwatcher. The classic Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan by Salim Ali and S Dillon Ripley, which covers the whole region and was first published in 1968-1975, lists over 1,200 species. With additional recording and following the more up-to-date nomenclature in the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of Birds of the World edited by E. C. Dickinson (2003) the current species total for the subcontinent stands at 1,375 species – 13 per cent of the world’s birds. A further relevant reference is Birds of South Asia: the Ripley Guide by Pamela Rasmussen and John Anderton, which has adopted much narrower species limits and, consequently, the latest edition (2012) recognises 1451 species in the region. Note that less than 800 species are found in all of North America. The Indian subcontinent is species-rich partly because of its wide altitudinal range extending from sea level up to the summit of the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountains. Another reason is the region’s highly varied climate and associated diverse vegetation. The extremes range from the almost rainless Great Indian or Thar Desert, where temperatures reach over 55°C, to the wet evergreen forests of the Assam Hills where 1,300 cm of rain a year have bee recorded at Cherrapunji – one of the wettest places on Earth, and the Arctic conditions of the Himalayan peaks where only alpine flowers and cushion plants flourish at over 4,900 m. The other major factor contributing to the subcontinent’s species-richness is its geographical position in a region of overlap between three biogeographic provinces – the Indo-malayan (South and South-East Asia), Palearctic (Europe and Northern Asia), and Afro-tropical (Africa) realms. As a result, species typical of all three realms occur. Most species are Indo-malayan, for example the ioras and minivets; some are Palearctic, including the accentors, and a small number, such as the Spotted Creeper Salpornis spilonotus, originate in Africa. New species are continually being added to the region’s list. For example, J. K. Tiwari recently found a flock of Pale Rockfinches Carpospiza brachydactyla in Gujarat a bird previously recorded only in the Middle East. Even more exciting, in 2006 Ramana Athreya first described for science the multi-coloured Bugun Liocichla Liocichla bugunorum, from the Himalayan forests of Arunachal Pradesh. Two species from the subcontinent are probably now extinct. The Pinkheaded Duck Rhodonessa caryophyllacea was formerly locally distributed in pools and swamps in the elephant grass jungles of north-eastern India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. It was last definitely seen in Bihar in 1935, but there are more recent unconfirmed reports from hunters in Myanmar. The Himalayan Dr. Salim Ali