Gurgaon: The small bittern in Haryana is one of the rarest Avian sightings – just twice in 40 years, according to Birders.
To photograph one, they said, was a landmark because it had never been done before.
Wader – a small stork with dark back and hat, white neck and spotting on the wing – generally breed in Kashmir and migrated to the southern part of India or Africa for winter.
A birder saw it near a water body in the village of Mandothi Jhajjar earlier this week, and it was again seen on Saturday by several fans of the Delhi Society.
Before this, the last little bittern was seen in the 1980s in Badli, said Birders.
However, there have been previous photography records about the appearance of this bird in the state, according to bird observers.
“This is his first appearance in Haryana after almost 40 years, but also the first time the bird was photographed in the state,” said Rajiv Ramaswamy from the Delhi Society, who first saw Bittertern Little when he visited a wetland in Mandothi.
with fellow Birder Sumitan Sahara.
Birdwatchers Col Pankaj Sharma and Sonu Dalal saw birds on the same site on Saturday.
“I knew that Rajiv saw it in the same area a few days ago, which was why I visited the site on Saturday.
We saw the three of them,” Sharma said.
Sharma added that when he first saw the birds, they flew spinning.
“Birds fly at first.
I waited for a while as I knew that they usually returned to the same place.
They finally returned and I could take some pictures,” he said.
This species is usually found near waterbodies.
“Small bittern usually breed in Kashmir and fly to the southern part of the country afterwards,” Dalal said.
“The bird was seen in okhla bird asylum last month, but rarely seen in Haryana,” said Pankaj Gupta, another birder of Delhi agency.
The view of Badli, although not captured in the photo, was recorded later on the ebird’s website.
India has five species of Bitnn.
Bittertern yellow, black and cinnamon are generally found, but large bitteranns and small bitnn rarely occur.