Jerdon's courser (''Rhinoptilus bitorquatus'') is a nocturnal bird belonging to the
pratincole
The pratincoles or greywaders are a group of birds which together with the coursers make up the family Glareolidae. They have short legs, very long pointed wings and long forked tails.
Description
Their most unusual feature for birds classed a ...
and
courser
The coursers are a group of birds which together with the pratincoles make up the family Glareolidae. They have long legs, short wings and long pointed bills which curve downwards. Their most unusual feature for birds classed as waders is that ...
family
Glareolidae
Glareolidae is a family of birds in the wader suborder Charadrii. It contains two distinct groups, the pratincoles and the coursers. The atypical Egyptian plover (''Pluvianus aegyptius''), traditionally placed in this family, is now known to ...
endemic to India. The bird was discovered by the surgeon-naturalist
Thomas C. Jerdon in 1848 but not seen again until its rediscovery in 1986.
This
courser
The coursers are a group of birds which together with the pratincoles make up the family Glareolidae. They have long legs, short wings and long pointed bills which curve downwards. Their most unusual feature for birds classed as waders is that ...
is a
restricted-range endemic found locally in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in the
Eastern Ghats
The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...
of
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
. It is currently known only from the
Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary
Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary headquartered in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is the only habitat in the world which provides home for the Jerdon's courser highly endangered bird species.http://www.discovered ...
, where it inhabits sparse
scrub forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
with patches of bare ground.
Description
![RhinoptilusBitorquatusSeebohm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/RhinoptilusBitorquatusSeebohm.jpg)
It is an unmistakable compact courser, with two brown breast-bands. It has a yellow base to the black
bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
, a blackish crown, broad buff
supercilium, and an orange-chestnut throat patch. A narrow white crown stripe runs on top of the head. In-flight it shows a mostly black tail and a prominent white wing bar. It is crepuscular and vocal at dawn and dusk with a series of staccato ''Twick-too...Twick-too... Twick-too'' or ''yak-wak.. yak-wak'' calls. The notes are repeated at the rate of about 1 per second and uttered 2 to 16 times and several birds in the vicinity may join in the calling.
Jerdon described the Telugu name of the species as ''Adavi wuta-titti'' meaning "Jungle empty-purse". This name may however have been in error since
Salim Ali
Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali (12 November 1896 – 20 June 1987) was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Sometimes referred to as the "''Birdman of India''", Salim Ali was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across Indi ...
and
Hugh Whistler
Hugh Whistler (28 September 1889 – 7 July 1943), F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. was an English police officer and ornithologist who worked in India. He wrote one of the first field guides to Indian birds and documented the distributions of birds in notes in ...
found villagers mystified by the name when they searched for the species near
Borgampad and Nelipaka during the Hyderabad state survey of 1931. Recent researchers have noted the local name as ''Kalivi kodi''.
Distribution and habitat
It is endemic to southern India, where it is principally known from southern Andhra Pradesh. It has an extremely limited geographical range being known from the Godaveri river valley near Sironcha and Bhadrachalam, and from the Cuddapah and Anantpur areas in the valley of the Pennar River. An egg, probably collected within 100 km of Kolar in 1917, was positively identified as belonging to this species using DNA sequence comparison.
It is mostly active at dusk and during the night. It was first recorded in the mid 19th century; it was then considered to be extinct for more than 80 years, until it was rediscovered in 1986 at Cuddapah District, Andhra Pradesh. In Maharashtra it was reported at “24 km east of Sironcha, near the Godavari river, three birds, undated (Blanford 1867, 1869), and sometime in the 20-year period before 1935 (D’Abreu, 1935)”. The species was known from specimens collected at a few locations in eastern peninsular India and the currently known population is extremely restricted in range. Studies in this region using sand strips to detect footprints suggest that their preferred habitat has tall bushes at a density of 300 to 700 per hectare.
Taxonomy
![Jerdon's Courser Egg cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Jerdon%27s_Courser_Egg_cropped.jpg)
The species was first collected by
Thomas C. Jerdon from somewhere in the
Eastern Ghats
The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...
. The specimen was presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal where the curator,
Edward Blyth described it, naming it as ''Macrotarsius rhinoptilus''. These collections were moved to the Indian Museum in 1866 following a financial crisis. Some specimens had been mounted and exhibited for the public but John Anderson moved the type specimens for safe storage in 1872. The type specimens used by Blyth were catalogued but the specimen used by Blyth was already missing. A second catalogue by W.L. Sclater in 1892 also failed to list the specimen. The type specimen is therefore presumed lost. A second specimen collected by Jerdon was obtained by
Strickland and is now in the collection of the Cambridge University. This specimen was examined by Strickland who used the new genus and combination, ''Rhinoptilus bitorquatus''. The label written by
Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous publications were a four-volume ''Dictionar ...
notes the location as "Madras" and date as 1846. During this period Jerdon is thought to have received specimens from near Nellore or Cuddapah. A third specimen in Jerdon's collection was acquired by Thomas Campbell Eyton and then to Henry Baker Tristram, and the specimen is now at National Museums Liverpool. Several other specimens exist in collections but a neotype, replacement for the type specimen, has not been suggested.
Status
This bird was known only from a few historical records and was thought to be extinct until its rediscovery in 1986. It was rediscovered by Bharat Bhushan, an ornithologist at the
Bombay Natural History Society
The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publ ...
who made use of local trappers to capture a specimen. Prior to its rediscovery it was thought to be a diurnal bird.
It remains critically endangered due to
loss of habitat. It is nocturnal in habit and presumed to be insectivorous. Being a rare bird, nothing is known yet about its behaviour and nesting habits.
Population estimates for the bird range from between 50 and 249. Recent studies have made use of techniques such as
camera trap
A camera trap is a camera that is automatically triggered by a change in some activity in its vicinity, like presence of an animal or a human being. It is typically equipped with a motion sensor – usually a passive infrared (PIR) senso ...
ping and carefully placed strips of fine sand to record footprints from which estimates of population density are made. The known world population of the species is restricted to a very small region and attempts have been made to find new areas by distributing pictures and small electronic call players to people in neighbouring regions that share similar habitats. Searches during 2008 in its former habitat near Sironcha in Gadchiroli district in eastern Maharashtra failed to find the birds.
In 1988 the
Indian Postal Service
India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings ...
released a stamp to commemorate the rediscovery.
Threats
![Bronx zoo jerdon's courser plank](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Bronx_zoo_jerdon%27s_courser_plank.jpg)
The construction of the
Somasilla Dam led to the residents of 57 villages being relocated into the region where the courser was rediscovered. These areas of
Lankamala,
Palakonda
Palakonda is a town in Parvathipuram Manyam district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a nagar panchayat and the mandal headquarters of Palakonda mandal in Palakonda revenue division
Geography
Palakonda is located at . It has an a ...
and
Seshachalam were previously not well populated. With the rising population, there was increased livestock pressures and firewood extraction. In addition, extensive quarrying threatens the habitat. The scrub habitat preferred by the bird has declined due to increased agricultural activity.
In December 2005, the only known location for the species was threatened by the
Telugu Ganga project
The Telugu Ganga project is a joint water supply scheme implemented in 1980s by the then Andhra Pradesh chief minister N.T.Ramarao and Tamilnadu Chief minister M. G. Ramachandran to provide drinking water to Chennai city in Tamil Nadu. It is als ...
, a scheme to supply water to the city of
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
. Legal action led to the diversion of the canal. The area has however continued to be threatened by illegal construction work and activity related to a project proposed to link the rivers of India. The construction of the canal could also lead to increased agricultural activity and habitat changes.
References
External links
BirdLife International: Jerdon's courserPhotographs
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1267955
Jerdon's courser
Birds of South India
Endemic birds of India
Jerdon's courser
Jerdon's courser