Small village makes it big as ornithologists flock to see a rare bird

The natural world is full of surprises and at times these surprises are enough to send nature lovers into a tizzy. A recent phenomenon occurring around a small village in Rajasthan, about a hundred kilometers from Jodhpur city, has caused much elation and surprise to conservationists and ornithologists.

Situated close to Beawar city in Ajmer, a small village called Nimaj is well known in the tourist circle due to a heritage property and a lake-side resort. This village has garnered the interest of ornithologists with sighting of a bird of prey. The bird is a rare find and the species has never been seen in these parts before.

The presence of the bird, identified as White-tailed Eagle, is surprising as this is not its natural habitat. "The White-tailed Eagle is a very large bird that is widely spread across and breeds as far as Greenland and Iceland. For such a bird to have travelled thousands of miles and reach the desert conditions of Rajasthan and seen alive and healthy is nothing short of a miracle," says Tejvir Singh of Tanuj Memorial Trust.

Interestingly, when the raptor was first sighted by a group of tourists, it was passed off as a Golden Eagle. "That was also a surprising find as Golden Eagles don't usually fly to this part. However, after studying several minute details of the bird's appearance, it was then found that it was a white-tailed eagle. Finding it in these parts was indeed a moment of surprise," said Rajpal Singh, member NTCA.

While the sighting has been continuing for the past few days at Nimaj, a single bird has been sighted by officials at a carcass dump in Bikaner for the past four years. "Every year since 2014 we have been sighting the white-tailed eagle at Jorbeer. But the number has been limited to just one bird and sightings were not too frequent as well," said Ram Niwas Kumawat, DFO - Bikaner.

Interestingly, while the bird makes prey of small animals and even fishes, experts believe it must have been surviving on rotten carcasses as well. "The part of land which the bird is seen in is not as abundant in food as some other parts which the bird has travelled across. For survival in the harsh desert conditions, we believe that it must have supplemented its diet by scavenging on carcasses and thus it visited the carcass dump site at Bikaner as hundreds of birds of prey of dozens of species flock to these grounds," said Tejvir Singh, adding further, "it is a great find and ahould be recorded in proper books."