Another species has been added to Bangladesh's bird list. Researchers have confirmed the yellow-throated sparrow at Kaptai in Rangamati for the first time, and Kaptai is now the easternmost place in the world where the bird has been recorded, The Daily Star reported, citing a paper published on 15 October in the international journal Check List.
On 24 April this year Ahsan Uddin Chowdhury, Raihan Bablu and Zahir Mahmud Sohag were birdwatching at Boroichhari in Kaptai when they saw the bird high in a tree beside a road along the forest and photographed it. Its identity was confirmed from the photographs and its features: brownish-grey head and upperparts, a slender bill, a clear pale yellow throat patch, chestnut feathers near the shoulder, white wing bars and a distinct line beside the eye.
The authors, Ahsan Uddin Chowdhury, Raihan Bablu, Zahir Mahmud Sohag and Nazmul Hasan, are linked to the Chattogram Bird Club and to the Eco-Climate Lab and Animal Immunisation Lab of the University of Chittagong's zoology department. According to the paper, the species usually lives in open forest, scrub, farmland and village areas in the dry and semi-arid regions of South and West Asia; its easternmost confirmed record until now was in West Bengal, India.
Ahsan Uddin Chowdhury told The Daily Star that the sparrow is a bird of dry habitats while Kaptai's forest is much more humid, which makes the record scientifically important. It may signal a range expansion, a response to habitat change, or simply a bird temporarily outside its normal range, he said.
The IUCN Red List lists the yellow-throated sparrow as Least Concern, so it is not at high risk of extinction globally. Whether it has settled in Bangladesh is not yet known; the researchers say year-round monitoring in Kaptai and the neighbouring hill districts and study of its nesting and breeding are needed. The Chittagong Hill Tracts, at the meeting point of the Indo-Himalayan and Indo-Burma regions, are important for understanding shifts in wildlife ranges, they add.
The report is by The Daily Star's Khengsaprue Marma.
Photo: Yellow-throated sparrow at Kanwar Lake, India, Vaibhavchou / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: The Daily Star
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