Chinese White-Browed Rosefinch Carpodacus Dubius In Mishmi Hills: A Confirmation Record For India

The Himalayan White-browed Rosefinch Carpodacus thura is a polytypic species with a distribution range that extends from north-eastern Afghanistan, through the main range of the Himalayas, till central- and western China (Clement 2016).

- Praveen J., Sachin Shurpali, Vijay Ramachandran, Mike Prince, Chris Bowden, Vinay Das, & Shashank Dalvi

Rasmussen (2005) proposed a major update of the Asian Rosefinches, treating the two western Himalayan races—blythii, and thura—of the White-browed Rosefinch as a separate species from the Chinese races—dubius, and femininus: the former being called the Himalayan White-browed Rosefinch C. thura sensu stricto, and the latter, Chinese White-browed Rosefinch C. dubius. This was also supported by subsequent phylogenetic studies (Tietze et al. 2013). This split also resulted in the latter species being treated as hypothetical for South Asia, for want of verifiable reports. Baker (1926) listed the nominate race of the Chinese White-browed Rosefinch as, “a not uncommon Winter [sic] visitor to Eastern Assam”, which area included present-day Arunachal Pradesh, during Baker’s time. Ali & Ripley (1987) listed the femininus race of the Chinese White-browed Rosefinch from northern Arunachal Pradesh. However, both references do not provide an irrefutable provenance of record, or reference, from South Asia, and hence it is listed as hypothetical (Rasmussen & Anderton 2012), and not included in the India Checklist (Praveen et al. 2016). Through this note, we would like to establish the presence of the Chinese White-browed Rosefinch in northern- eastern Arunachal Pradesh, by presenting photographic evidence.