A team of scientists from India and Sweden has not only discovered a new species of bird from North-East India but has also named it after the great Indian ornithologist Dr Salim Ali. This is the fourth discovery of a new bird species in India since Independence in 1947.
The Himalayan Forest Thrush (scientific name Zoothera salimalii) is the first Indian bird to be been named after Ali.
For the Ali family, this is double honour. In 1998, ornithologist Pamela Rasmussen, who discovered the Nicobar Scops Owl from Greater Nicobar named it after Humayun Abdulali, a well-known ornithologist and cousin of Salim Ali.
Now, let's cut to the present. Till the other day, birdwatchers had mistaken the Himalayan Forest Thrush as the Plain-backed Thrush.
But ornithologists Dr Per Alstrom from Sweden and Shashank Dalvi from Mumbai realised that there was a difference in the way the two sing.
Alstrom, a leading ornithologist, is a professor from Uppsala University, Sweden, and Dalvi is a resident of Mumbai and an alumnus of the Post Graduate Programme from the Wildlife Biology and Conservation, Bengaluru.
“What struck us was that the Plain-backed Thrush, found in coniferous and mixed forests, has a rather musical song. Those found in the same region but on bare rocky habitats above the treeline has a much harsher, scratchier and unmusical song,” said Dalvi.
Dalvi recorded the calls of both the birds and carried out a detailed analysis. There came the first clue. In the next step, they studied museum specimens from 15 countries, including the US, the UK and China.
Soon, they noticed differences in plumage (feathers) and physical structure. “This confirmed that the species breeding in the forests of the eastern Himalayas, which we had discovered, had no scientific name. We named this species as the Himalayan Forest Thrush,” said Dalvi.
The Plain-backed Thrush has now been renamed as Alpine Thrush.
They spotted the Himalayan Forest Thrush first at Sela pass, between the west Kameng and Tawang districts, in May- June 2009, while studying high-elevation birds of western Arunachal Pradesh. The two then spent a couple of years travelling to various high-altitude places to sight and study the bird.
After a lot of studies, they realised that what was considered a single species- the Plain-backed Thrush (Zoothera mollissima) was, in fact, two different species in N-E India.
Dalvi says they could not have confirmed this without the help of researchers from China, the US, and Russia.
“Most collaborators visited several museums to study the samples of these birds... The detailed study was converted into a scientific paper and submitted for peer reviews by the Scientific Journal, where it has been accepted and now published,” said Dalvi, adding that the new bird should be added in popular guide books in the future.
Himalayan Forest Thrush
Found between elevations of 3,400-4,200 metres
Prefers steep slopes filled with old coniferours forests, rhododendron and broad-leaved trees with lush undergrowth
Found in Sikkim, Darjeeling, and Arunachal Pradesh to northwest Yunan, China, during breeding season
It winters as far south as Meghalaya and Manipur, India and northern Vietnam
Has noticeably longer and deeper bill with more arched culmen and dark, longer hook
Has shorter wings, tail and tarsi (part of the legs) and also more ruddier than Alpine Thrush
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