Wagtails (Motacillidae: Passeriformes: Aves) of Chandertal wildlife sanctuary in Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

The wagtail birds belonging to family Motacillidae are small to medium sized, mostly insectivores exhibiting worldwide distribution and breeding grounds at altitude up to 4500 m above mean sea level. The complete description of wagtail has not been yet recorded from Chandertal Wildlife Sanctuary of Himachal Pradesh. Scientific survey were conducted to fulfill this taxonomic gap which result in documentation of three species belonging to genus Motacilla of family Motacillidae. The studied area harbours high altitude Wetland as internationally known Ramsar site (No. 1569) due to its characteristic and few endangered flora and fauna. The Chandertal lake with 2.5 km circumference and few small semipermanent water bodies interspersed with grassy meadows and rocky pastures, hosts different alpine chordates and non-chordate (mostly insects) fauna making ecological food web.