From The Hindu - Oct. 2, 2005

Island birds
S. THEODORE BASKARAN
The Andaman and Nicobar islands are the proverbial paradise for
birdwatchers.
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/10/02/stories/2005100200390400.htm
PHOTOS: SIDHARTH RAO

IN his book Song of the Dodo, biologist David Quammen talks about how
geographical isolation triggers speciation. The dodo of Mauritius is the
best example of this development. With no predator to worry about, the dodo
flourished for millennia in the Indian Ocean island till man landed there in
the 18th Century.
However Quammen points out that geographical isolation does not always
result in appearance of a new species. But when new species evolve, they do
so only in isolation. Of all the life forms it is the bird species that
reflect this feature. It was the finches of Galapagos Island that led Darwin
to his theory of evolution. This was brought home to us dramatically when we
spent a few hours in the Andaman-Nicobar archipelago recently.
Primeval splendour
Havelock Island is about two hours by boat from Port Blair. Surrounded by
emerald lagoons, much of the mountainous island is covered with tropical
evergreen forests. In some stretches, mangrove swamps line the shores. It
was a landscape of primeval splendour.
On the first day, wading in the lagoon, I saw two birds on a mangrove tree.
One look and I knew it was a "lifer" for me - a bird species you see for the
first time in your life. They were white-headed mynas. Within minutes, a
woodpecker with a white-barred black mantle and red crown landed on the same
tree. Another "lifer" - the fulvous-breasted woodpecker. Both birds are
exclusive to the Andamans.


The 324 islands of the Andaman-Nicobar archipelago are the tops of the
submerged mountain chain, a continuation of the Arakan Yomas of Myanmar. But
they have been separated long enough from the mainland to develop avifauna
of their own. The islands are home to about 242 birds of which 39 are unique
to the islands. Ornithologists describe them as endemic, birds that have
evolved into distinctive species because of the insularity of their
habitats. Soon we saw more endemic species like the olive-backed sunbird and
Andaman swallow. These islands are a birdwatcher's paradise.
After the 1857 rising, the British government turned its attention to
Andaman Islands to explore the possibility of setting up a penal colony.
Soon a few amateur ornithologists from the civil services visited the
islands and collected specimens.
One such was A.O. Hume, the founder of the Indian National Congress. Based
on his collections, he wrote a series of articles between 1874 and 1876 in
Stray Feathers, a journal of natural history. At least one bird in the
islands is named after Hume - the white collared kingfisher (Todiramphus
chloris humii), easily spotted in the jetty area of Port Blair. Hume was
also the first to get a specimen of the Narcondam hornbill, another endemic
bird. The entire population of 300 hornbills is confined to a single
forested island, Narcondam. Another endemic bird easily spotted in Port
Blair is the Andaman crow pheasant.


After taxonomist Humayun Abdulali of the Bombay Natural History Society
carried out a series of surverys in the 1980s and published his
observations, ornithologists realised the unrivalled nature of the birds in
the islands. The megapode, which has come to symbolise the endemic birds of
Andamans, inhabits the Nicobar Islands. Another distinct bird is the Nicobar
pigeon with its metallic green hackles and sheen on its plumage.
Sighting the shama
For the last three days of our holiday, we stayed in the cottages of the
Andaman Nicobar Ecology Team (ANET) in a forest in Wandoor. Every morning at
daybreak we would hear hauntingly long-drawn fluid birdcalls. Peeping out,
we could see the shama singing and pirouetting in a bamboo clump. The
plumage was a little different from the shama in the mainland.


A quick look at the book revealed that this was indeed a sub-species
exclusive to the Andamans - the white-rumped shama (cpyschus malabricus
albiventris). Arguably the best songbird, the shama is a forest dweller and
difficult to spot. For a birder, the sight of this bird announcing the
arrival of a new day is a consummation devoutly to be wished for.
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