Yellow-throated Bulbul Pycnonotus xantholaemus Scientific name definitions

"I have described this Bird, which was brought me [sic] from the Eastern range of Ghauts dividing Cuddapah from the Nellore district, by some excellent hill Shikarees to whom I am indebted for more than one novelty. They describe it as frequenting the densest woods in elevated valleys, and assert that it lives chiefly on fruit of various kinds. The name they apply to it is Konda poda pigli, or hill bush bulbul..." — Thomas Caverhill Jerdon, 1847 (1 Jerdon, T. C. (1847). Illustrations of Indian ornithology. Plate XXXV Pycnonotus xantholaemus Yellow-throated Bulbul. Printed by P. R. Hunt, American Mission Press, India. Close ).

Yellow-throated Bulbul is a species of conservation concern (IUCN Redlist category "Vulnerable") endemic to the Deccan peninsula of southern India (2 BirdLife International (2021). Species factsheet: Pycnonotus xantholaemus. Close ). This fairly common, but localized species, occurs in isolated pockets of suitable habitat — hill slopes with sparse trees and scrub vegetation growing amidst boulders — distributed across South India. Until recently, this species was known largely from museum collections and early surveys by ornithologists. Though described in 1847, the first photographic record of nesting appeared as recently as 1999 (3 Venkataswamappa, M., and M. R. Chaitra (1999). Observations of nesting Yellow-throated Bulbuls. Bulletin of the Oriental Bird Club 30: 32. Close ). Since then, a few dedicated surveys, the rising popularity of birdwatching and interest in this species have contributed new information on its distribution, climatic niche, feeding ecology, breeding ecology, phylogenetic affinity, and population genetics.

The Yellow-throated Bulbul has no extant sister species, it diverged from nearest sister taxa in late Miocene, an estimated 7.5 million years ago (4 Jha, A., S. Seneviratne, H. S. Prayag, and K. Vasudevan (2021). Phylogeny identifies multiple colonisation events and Miocene aridification as drivers of South Asian bulbul (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae) diversification. Organisms Diversity and Evolution 21:783–794. Close ). A phylogenetic study found no evidence of genetic structure in its discontinuous populations, rather it appears to exist as a metapopulation, likely shaped by dispersal among suitable habitats (5 Jha, A., and K. Vasudevan (2020). Demographic history of the fragmented Yellow-throated bulbul (Pycnonotus xantholaemus) population in the Deccan Peninsula, India. Endangered Species Research 43: 199–207. Close ). Much information on natural history comes from casual observations and several key aspects of ecology such as diet, resource partitioning, adaptation, demography, and dispersal remain unstudied. It is exclusively found in rugged terrain and the microclimate of such habitats could affect occupancy and dispersal (6 Jha, A., and K. Vasudevan (2020). Environmental niche modelling of globally threatened Yellow-throated bulbul, Pycnonotus xantholaemus for conservation prospects in the Deccan Peninsula, India. Current Science 119(11): 1815–1823. Close ).

Habitat loss is a quintessential threat; a characteristic feature of many habitats it occupies is granitic boulders, which attract the prospects of quarrying. Deccan scrub and thorn forest habitat are viewed as 'wasteland' in forestry parlance and receive little conservation attention due to lack of charismatic megafauna (7 Rahmani, A. (2010). Threatened birds of India: need for immediate conservation action. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 106(1): 1–3. Close ). The Yellow-throated Bulbul can be promoted as non-traditional flagship species for the conservation of Deccan rocky outcrops and associated scrub habitat (6 Jha, A., and K. Vasudevan (2020). Environmental niche modelling of globally threatened Yellow-throated bulbul, Pycnonotus xantholaemus for conservation prospects in the Deccan Peninsula, India. Current Science 119(11): 1815–1823. Close ).