MUMBAI
This is the first officially documented sighting of the duck in India, and now has birding enthusiasts from across Mumbai rushing to Vasai
An early morning birding session at Vasai stuck gold for two birders who clicked photographs of a 'different-looking duck'. A few hours later, it was identified as a red-breasted merganser. This is the first officially documented sighting of the duck in India, and now has birding enthusiasts from across Mumbai rushing to Vasai.
Dr Rajaneesh Ghadi, an amateur birdwatcher and resident of Vasai, who spotted and published details about the bird on Wednesday, said: "Me and Dr Mangesh Prabhulkar were birding near a pond located at Rajavali village in Vasai, when we noticed this strange-looking bird. At first, we thought it was a grebe. Since it looked different, we decided to click its images and get it identified."
By noon, bird experts from different parts helped us identify and confirmed that this was indeed a red-breasted merganser and it was its first sighting in the country. "We are extremely excited and happy about it and as word spread, birders from across Mumbai started flocking to the site. However, the credit also goes to Dr Vinod Varma, an avid birder who spotted this bird last week," said Ghadi, a member of the Nature and Environment Society of Thane (NEST), a group monitoring and recording birds in and around the Vasai-Virar belt. Though Varma spotted the duck last week and clicked pictures, he didn't publish them.
Naturalist and avid birder, Saurabh Sawant, said that the red-breasted merganser is an extremely common bird in North America, Europe and even Central Asia but it never winters in India.
"There are two extremely old records – one which was procured from the Kolkata market, presumably from its neighbourhood, in December 1889, and another in January 1961, from the Parganas district – both in West Bengal. But both have very little information. So, this is of course the most proper recording with photographs, making it the first well-documented record for India," said Sawant.
In fact, he said that the bird looks like a female, a sub-adult, and it could have lost its way from its regular wintering site, the nearest of which could be in Pakistan. "It is a diving duck and depends on fishes and insects for food and mainly prefers deep waters," said Sawant. Since this will be a lifer (a species that a birder has seen and identified in the wild for the very first time), almost every birder going to see is excited, he said.
Sachin Main, the founder-chairman of NEST, said that the sighting of the duck has generated a lot of excitement and they have requested birdwatchers, especially photographers, to exercise restraint. "It is a single bird and we are requesting photographers to not go very close to the bird for a perfect shot as it might get disturbed," he said.
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