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Among winter visitors, birders get some uncommon sightings

Gurgaon: The air may be thick with acrid smoke but that hasn’t stopped species of winter migratory birds making their way to Sultanpur National Park , the wetlands in Basai and Najafgarh , and other submerged areas.

Indeed, it’s that time of year birding enthusiasts look forward to, and among the species they have noticed are the ruff, bar-headed goose, greylag goose, black-tailed godwit, greater flamingo, black-winged stilt, common teal and Northern shoveler.

Birds on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, among them the woolly-necked stork, painted stork, black-headed ibis and black-necked stork, have also been sighted.

“I have spotted over 60 migratory species in Sultanpur,” birder and environmentalist Brigadier Arvind Yadav told TOI. He noted some “interesting” sightings, including the Eurasian hobby, Jack Snipe, pallid harrier, golden plover, short-eared owl, orange-headed thrush and demoiselle crane.

“Most of the species have arrived, except for a few raptors – also, the imperial eagle, Montagu’s harrier, common buzzard and steppe eagle are yet to arrive.” The brigadier added that while lack of rainfall and the smog has affected the number of winged visitors, it has had little or no effect on the number of species.

Pankaj Gupta of the Delhi Bird Foundation got word of an avian curiosity. “We received information of an unusual bird sighting from Sultanpur National Park; it was suspected to be an American wigeon, which doesn’t come to India. However, later, after reviewing the photographs, it was concluded that it was a hybrid of the Eurasian teal and Eurasian wigeon,” explained Gupta, who is coordinator of eBird (an online database) in the Delhi region.

“It is definitely an interesting sighting, since spotting a hybrid bird in the wild is not very common,” he added. The parents of hybrids, incidentally, are two different species. Gupta also called the sighting in Sirsa of two rufous-vented grass babblers, a near-threatened species, as significant for the region.

Every year, more than 250 species, both migratory and resident, are spotted in Sultanpur. However, some species which prefer saltwater habitats give the park a miss and prefer to hang out around other wetlands, like Basai and Najafgarh, which are located close to the park and which also report many a sighting.

Sultanpur, once a natural lake, used to get water from the natural courses in the Aravalis. However, the destruction of the hills, allied with real-estate activity and decline in rainfall, led to these streams drying up. At present, the lake is fed by canal water, pumped artificially through a pipeline coming from the Gurgaon Water Supply Canal in Kaliawas.

Located some 15km from the city, the national park hosts many migratory species every winter, with the bird population here increasing by around 20,000 during the season. They come from as far off as Siberia and Europe, and as close as Central Asia.

Meanwhile, the community of birders is eagerly awaiting the Delhi Bird Race, scheduled for November 24. This is an annual birding event that takes place in Delhi-NCR, during which birdwatchers attempt to observe as many species as they possibly can. It is expected that more species will be recorded during this year’s race.

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