BIRDS OF SIKKIM

THE LITTLE FORKTAIL

Enicurus scouleri Vigors

Enicurus scouleri Vigors, 1832, Proc. Zool. Soc. London: 174 Himalayas.

LOCAL NAME: Oong sumbrek-pho (Lepcha)

SIZE: Sparrow

FIELD CHARACTERS: A stub tailed miniature of the Spotted Forktail. Above, forehead and forecrown white; rest of head, neck and back black. Wings black, spotted with white at shoulder, and with a broad triangular white bar. Rump and upper tail-coverts white, the former with a broad black band across it. Below, throat and upper breast black; rest of under parts white. Tail short, slightly forked, of the same black-and-white pattern as in female Plumbeous Redstart. Sexes alike.

 STATUS AND HABITAT: Fairly common with a wide overall altitudinal range, between c.1000 and 10,000ft. (Singtam, Martam,Dikchu, Singhik, Toong, Chungthang, Lachen, Lachung). Affects rocky, torrential mountain streams, and nullahs with cascades and waterfalls.

DISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE SIKKIM: SE. Turkestan and Altai Mountains; throughout the Himalayas from Gilgit and Chitral through Kashmir to extreme east Assam north and south of Brahmaputra River; Naga Hills, NE. Burma, S.Tibet, N.Yunnan, Tonkin. The species extends S. China and Formosa.

GENERAL HABITS: Typical of the forktails. On a rock amidst the torrent, wags stub tail slowly up and down, and rapidly opens and shuts it with a smooth rhythmic scissors-like motion flicking the black-and-white pattern. This exactly resembles the foam of water tumbling over roughnesses of rock and often renders the bird completely invisible. Silent. Food: aquatic and dipterous insects and their larvae, taken at the water’s edge or by flying out over the rapids in pursuit, very like the Plumbeous Redstart.

NESTING: Season-May-June. Nest- a miniature of that of the Spotted Forktail: a deep cup of moss, lined with moss-roots, skeleton leaves, etc. Placed in a hole or cleft of rock near or under a water-fall, or in the bank of a stream.

Eggs- 3, white, sparsely speckled with light reddish brown. Size about 20x15mm. Apparently, as in other forktails, both sexes share the domestic duties.

THE SIKKIM BLACK TIT

Parus rubidiventris beavani (Jerdon)

Lophophanes beavani ‘Blyth’=Jerdon, 1863, Birds of India 2275

Mount Tonglo, Sikkim.

LOCAL NAME: Liho Tasso (Lepcha).

SIZE: Sparrow.

FIELD CHARACTERS: A black-crested tit, blue grey above, greenish grey below, with rusty buffish cheeks. Remainder of head and upper breast black. A white spot on nape. Under tail –coverts chestnut. Sexes alike.

STATUS AND HABITAT: A bird of high elevations, 9000-14,000 ft. (Lachung, Yumthang, Chang, Thangu, Gnathang, etc.) in pine forest. Even found above the tree limit in dwarf rhododendron scrub. Its seasonal altitudinal movement seems to be insignificant.

DISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE SIKKIM: E.Nepal, Bhutan, S.Tibet, N.Burma, W.China.

GENERAL HABITS: Typical of the tits. The song, commonly heard in the high pine and juniper forests in summer, is a cheerful musical double whistle whiwee, whiwee, whiwee, whiwee (usually repeated four times). Insects and their eggs and larvae form the staple diet, but berries are also eaten. Kernels are extracted from their hard shells by persistent hammer blows of the bill while they are held down under foot.

NESTING: The only Sikkim record is from ‘above Gangtok’ at about 10,000 ft. elevation in ‘open forest of stunted oak and other trees’- 19 May. The nest was ‘a pad of moss and fur placed in a hole at the roots of a tree on a mossy sloping bank.’ It contained 2 eggs, pure white blotched with reddish, measuring 18.8 x 14.0 and 18.5x 18.8 mm.

Source: OUR WAY TO ENGLISH (Class six)

English Textbook.

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