Some observations on the Indian Courser

17/06/2016 4:20-5:15 PM

We were welcomed into the location by a white-eyed buzzard with a lizard kill and a flock of mynas. We first sighted the Indian courser in its previously sighted location. Before we sighted the courser, we could observe Yellow-wattled lapwings in good numbers and in various stages of development. We also saw several Yellow-wattled lapwings brooding over eggs at several locations. The entire landscape had short grass perhaps no taller than the courser itself. The location had a functioning quarry and several Lorries were commuting from the location. The location itself was a divided into residential plots. It is only a matter of time before the entire place becomes developed. There were no tall bushes except for some Prosopis Juliflora shrubs. We could see several Ashy-crowned sparrow larks also foraging on the ground. The soil could be called as red sandy soil. It was perhaps nutrient deficient and unfit for agriculture.

We could finally see the chick and the courser. We could not tell whether it was a male or female. They were feeding cautiously with a sharp lookout for threats. They were apparently unperturbed by vehicles as the quarry activity proceeds for the entire day and the Lorries kept coming and going. The chick was periodically coming to its parent and was demanding food. This was surprising as it was a fairly fully grown chick and it could forage well by itself.

The Indian courser is a striking bird with striking white coloured legs with three forward pointing toes. A white supercilium which extends on either side of the face beginning at the top of the beak, joining and ending at the nape is very striking. The sharp downcurved beak sets it apart. The crown is dark chestnut colour. The chest area is light brown in colour. The shoulder and tail are grey in colour. The vent is white in colour. The chick has a cryptic plumage with alternate spots of white and dark brown. The white pattern above the eye is visible in the chick but the black eye stripe is not very prominent.

The adult Indian courser is much smaller in apperance compared to the yellow-wattled lapwing. It prefers to run rather than fly. In flight also it appears very similar to Yellow-wattled lapwings.

The chick and the adult were very close to each other and were seldom separated by more than 10 feet from each other. In all the time I saw the bird, I never heard it call.

The adult after some time laid down on the ground and ruffled its feathers. We could see the chick limping. We are not sure of the reason for its limping. It perhaps got injured somehow. We took pictures of both the birds and decided to leave them in peace. We were told about another set of coursers further into the road. Though we went further, we could not see any more coursers that day.

We could also see two francolins in a peculiar dark coloration. (See picture) I was confused whether these could be melanistic variants of Grey francolin. They could also got this coloration by dusting in dark / black soil.

18/06/2016 12:00-1:00 PM
Having seen the Indian courser at a close range, I decided to go to this location again during mid-day on my way back from another birding session at Anaikatti. This time, I saw the same pair of coursers almost at the same location I saw them yesterday. Wanting to explore further, I drove very slowly ahead along the mud path.

Almost a half a kilometer away from my first location, I came across a bigger flock of Indian coursers. This flock had almost 8 eight individuals: two adults and rest were chicks in various stages of development. I could observe a chick demanding food from the adults in a peculiar manner. It was bending forward and touching the ground with its beak like a human prostrating in front of deity.
One of the sub adults, perhaps wanting to distract my attention from the chicks, dropped down its wings. Ornithologists call this behavior as “Broken wing display” and is used to distract attention away from chicks by feigning injury. I looked up several sources to know more about this behavior but I could not come across any source mentioning this behavior in coursers. This behavior is well documented in lapwings.

I could see another adult Indian courser which was injured and had lost one of its leg below its knee. This made me think about the other Indian courser I saw earlier the previous day. The high
frequency of leg problems were perhaps linked to genetics. As Indian coursers are quite rare and we have a very little population left, lameness was perhaps a result of inbreeding.

Today I observed a Indian courser trying to withstand the strong wind. When it had trouble, it opened up one of its wings in an effort to stabilize itself. (Right wing in this case)

 I also encountered in the same location some four chestnut-bellied sand grouse and a juvenile Rufous-tailed lark.

Though Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse is very well documented in these parts,
Rufous-tailed larks are very rare and I had observed two adults in 19/09/2015 in my Village (Palladam Puliampatti). The fact that this was a juvenile perhaps conclusively proves that Rufous-tailed larks are residents to our district. We just need to look out for them more.
In addition we could see some paddy field pippits, Richards pippits, Ashy crowned sparrow larks and large grey babblers.

Sighting of an Indian Eagle owl in my Village

Some experiences are as magical as one in which we sight an owl. Sighting an Indian Eagle owl warrants a separate blog article for itself.

              Since June 2014, I have been maintaining records of birds sighted in a patch of land owned by my family in Palladam Puliampatti Village. I started this as it was a course requirement for my ornithology course in Bombay Natural History society. In the course of one year, I recorded close to 49 species in this patch. This variety of life encourage me to take this up for a long term study. After my ornithology course concluded, I kept revisiting the site to record the changes in this location. Initially, I wanted to go for planting of trees in this patch to further supplement the wildlife found here. Now, two years and 79 species later, I doubt if such a step would be disastrous for the scrubland and grassland species of birds found here. We will leave this debate for the moment and get back on track for the sighting.
               I visited this track of land on 12th July 2016 at around 7:45 am. I wanted to take a different course from my normal track and see if would yield me more species sightings. As I walked on the edges of my land, I noticed some thing peculiar. In the adjoining ravine, I saw a Red-Wattled lapwing crouching suspiciously. The position resembled a false brooding position I had witnessed in Yellow-Wattled lapwings. Suspecting that its nest might be nearby, I decided to visit the ravine.

When I stepped into the ravine (This is not a natural ravine but one formed by illegally excavating the land of soil for road constructing in a nearby school), I searched in futile for the Red-wattled lapwing and its nest but in my search, I could see a short figure moving at some distance away. Through the viewfinder I could see that it was an Indian eagle owl! I was super excited. I had seen this bird flying through my farm a few months before and was searching for its roosting location.

I knew that the scrub land was a potential locality for the eagle owl. It never crossed my mind that I should probably check the ravines adjacent to my land. I took a few quick pictures and when I approached closely, the bird flew away from me. In flight, it was wondrous to see the bird with huge wingspan in proportion to its body. Indian eagle owls are usually seen in pairs. However, I could only seen one bird in this location.

I checked the shrub in which it was roosting and I could see that the shrub also contained a few empty creamy white eggshells and couple of regurgitated pellets. These eggshells seemed to be from a recent brood of the Indian Eagle owl!. Most birds dispose of the eggshells from their nests so that the eggshells don't give away their nesting locations. Perhaps the Indian eagle owl was confident that it could fend off any possible dangers to its brood. I also doubted if the eggshells were very recent. They usually nest between November and April and chicks are dependent on its parent for nearly six months. There were no sign of its chicks or its mate. Cursory glance of the pellet also revealed that it was a leftover from a meal of rats or bandicoots. I rechecked the site and adjoining ravines for the bird for the following two days but there were no sign of the bird. The roosting site itself in which I found the bird was by itself seemed to be sparingly used. As mentioned earlier, I could only see two pellets and very few droppings. It was perhaps one of the many roosting sites of the bird. I decided to try my luck after November, at which time, I hope the nesting site would be reused by the bird.

Observations on Yellow-wattled lapwing Nesting

Yellow-wattled lapwings, in general,seem to prefer a drier habitat compared to their cousins, the Red-wattled lapwings. They are plovers like their cousins. The reason for their yellow wattles is unclear.

I had the opportunity to study closely the nesting behaviour of Yellow-wattled lapwings. They tend to nest on the open ground. the nest is just a scrape on the ground. I had the opportunity to study five active nests from an unobstructive distance away. They lay 3-4 eggs in a clutch. (In birds of Kerala, Dr Salim Ali mentions that the nest contains invariably 4 eggs but I could see two nests with just 3 eggs. I visited again a day after and three days after to see if the clutch would contain another egg. No, there wasn't any new egg).

Spacing of the nests seem to be highly variable. On two occasions, I have seen them nesting barely 25 ft away from each other. It does seem that both the parents partake in the nesting duty. The chicks are born nidifugus (ie., they are able to see, walk and find their own food on birth). However, it seems that the parent broods on the chick for sometime after its birth.

I once walked close to a yellow-wattled lapwing which appeared to be brooding. The parent, when approached too closely, walked away, revealing two very small chicks. The Yellow-wattled lapwing uttered a single note call hearing which the chicks remained immobile in their positions. Since the chicks are very cryptically plumaged, It is very difficult to spot them in an open ground. They seem to perfectly blend with their surroundings.

When I tried to approach the chicks, the parents became very agitated and started calling frantically and flew towards me menacingly. They only became calm after they saw me leave. I could not witness the broken wing display of Yellow-wattled lapwings.(For a detailed discussion of Broken-wing and other distraction displays please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distraction_display) Again, I could see no sign of the egg shells. The parents had either disposed of the egg shells or had consumed them to supplement calcium in their diets. This raises an important question: If the chicks are born Niudifugous, and the parents and chicks start looking for insects away from the nests, is there a need for nest concealment? do they reuse the same nesting sites?

I must mention here that the response by Yellow-wattled lapwings when their nests or chicks are approached were many and varied. Once when I approached a nest, the brooding lapwing simply moved some distance away and sat down in different place like it was brooding in that location. (See picture below). The practice resembled 'false brooding'. There were many occasions where the bird simply walked away while keeping a watchful eye over the nest from a safe distance without crouching down.

On one occasion, a lapwing with chicks, collected both the chicks under its wing and crouched low to the ground.

In another occasion, when I walked upto a parent with four newly chicks (Undoubtedly from one of the nests I have been observing), the parent uttered a single note call. hearing this call, all the four chicks lay flat on the ground and were immobile.

Their nesting practices raises many questions. How are they able to protect their nests against predators like crows, kites, buzzards and feral dogs? how do they make sure that nests are not accidentally trampled by grazing animals?

I could observe that the Yellow-wattled lapwings do not abandon their nests even after their nests with eggs or chicks have been discovered. I also observed that they are not very aggressive when the nest contains only eggs. Their behaviour changes only when chicks are present.

The effectiveness of their plumage can be appreciated in summers or post summers when the grasses dry out and Yellow-wattled lapwings begin to blend well with their surroundings.

I could also see Yellow-wattled lapwings are affected by mites the same as Pipits are affected by Mites.

I visited the breeding site on 10/07/16 when it was raining. I wanted to observe f the parent was brooding on the eggs even during the rains and I could observe the dedicated parents on the job unmindful of the rain. I even observed several lapwings collecting insects in the rain. Rain seems to be only a minor inconvenience in their scheme of things.

One of the nests I have been observing from 18/06 had finally hatched on 14/07. So The incubation period of the eggs should be greater than 26 days. (Greater than 26 because I don't know when the eggs were first laid) It appears that all the eggs hatched simultaneously.(I visited the site of 12/07 and still saw the eggs being brooded by the parent) . It was fascinating to me that all eggs hatched simultaneously even if they were laid a few days apart. I am sure that bird has been brooding on the eggs since they were first laid, then how is this feat of simultaneous hatching achieved?


Questions that remained with me:
1) How long are the eggs incubated?
2) What is the breeding success rate?
3) How long are the chicks dependant on their parent?
4) Do all the eggs hatch simultaneously?
5) Do Siblings from previous brood assist it brooding later clutches?
6) How many broods do a couple raise in a year?

Some of these questions can be answered only if the birds are tagged or colour coded.

Some observations on the Black-shouldered kite

For birders living in the countryside, Black-shouldered kites are a fairly common sight. Often, they are seen roosting on electric lines or telephone lines. They have come so accustomed to roosting on these lines that it sometimes becomes frustrating for photographers to take photographs of them in a 'natural perch'. (This is mandatory for qualifying for photography contests)

They can often be mistaken for crows because of their apparent small size. I have seen Black shouldered kites roosting alongside crows and mynas. These birds don't seem bothered by each others presence. It also quite common to see them being mobbed by crows. We can only assume what transpired between them. Black-shouldered kite probably tried to steal eggs or chicks from a crows nest.

I once observed three Black-shouldered kites, while being mobbed by crows, were also engaged in some sort of a ritual. In mid flight, one of the Black-shouldered kites would flip over and present the talons to the other bird. The other black-shouldered kite would catch hold of the talons and would cart-wheel in the sky for some distance before breaking away and repeating this process. I had seen this kind of behaviour in sea eagles in "The Life of Birds" documentary by David Attenbrough. Sea eagles engage in such cartwheeling while fighting for territory.

I tried to look up several sources to find out if this behaviour was documented in Black-shouldered kites. However, there was no mention of this. In the book "Birds of prey" by Rishad Naoroji, there was a mention of this behaviour. It is apparently a courtship ritual that these birds perform. It is mentioned that the usually the female usually flips over and presents its talons to the male. I was unable to ascertain this as the sexes are indistinguishable in the field.

Another thing I have observed with Black-shouldered kites is their tail flicking behaviour. while roosting, they are sometimes observed to flick their tails up and down in a unique fashion. I don't know the reason for this behaviour. They are perhaps signalling. I however could not sight another black-shouldered kite in the proximity.

When they are roosting and they are about to take off, they almost always defecate. Infact, I believe most raptors defecate before take off. I have seen White-eyed buzzards do this.

I also have seen Black-shouldered kites being active very early in the morning to very late in the evening. (on June 24/06/16, I actually Black-shouldered kites hunting for prey at 7:00 PM in the evening. However, the date being very close to the summer solstice, enough light was available)

One observation shared by an ardent birder was that the presence of Black-shouldered kites in a location, is an indicator for habitat destruction. I don't know the basis of this belief or if this belief is true. It needs validation.