In a rare sighting that has been photographed, birder K. Vivek Nayak from Mangaluru captured through his lens the ‘Ortolan bunting’, which breeds from Mongolia to Europe and migrates to Africa via the Middle East.
Mr. Nayak, from Coastal Karnataka Birdwatchers’ Network, told The Hindu that he spotted the bird at Kenjar, on the outskirts of the city, on Sunday (November 18) at about 4.15 p.m.
“The bird was drinking water in a marshy field,” he said. After Mr. Nayak shared the spotting of the bird and its photograph on social media, some birders commented that it is the first photographic record of an Ortolan bunting in India. Praveen J. from Bird Count India, a consortium of several groups of birders across India, told The Hindu : “It is the definitive photograph from India.”
Mr. Praveen said that the bird appears to be ‘disoriented’, and it is a young one. While migrating, if an Ortolan bunting loses its way, it may land anywhere, he said. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species has placed Ortolan bunting in the “Least Concern” category. Shivashankar, a birder and the co-author of the book, ‘Birds of Southern Coastal Karnataka’, wrote: “Wonderful sighting of Ortolan bunting at Mangaluru by Vivek.” Another birder Prashantha Krishna M.C. wrote: “This one is the first confirmed photographic record for India.”
