harshithjv
Pied Wheatear (Male)
© Harshith J.V.
An uncommon vagrant to the region. 2nd record for the district. Earlier sighted on October 2019 as far as I remember and was a female.
Thanks to Prashantha Krishna M C for exploring this patch newly on Sankranti day(Jan 14). This was on last day the bird was sighted. As per eBird Mahim Bhat sighted it last, later in the evening.
Few people came from far off places to see this bird. Maybe because of pandemic, only few twitchers turned up comparatively. Bird is regular in some parts of Ladakh and Himalayas. Yet, I heard, it's not a easy bird to sight over there too. Another winter migrant in those region known has Variable Wheatear, like its name, assumes the plumage similar to this bird and so some had missed sighting it there too.
Felt lucky to sight such rare vagrant bird in my hometown only. Had seen it 4 times in the span of one month I visited the place. Felt too bad for birders who had missed at the end of February when they were in town for Pelagic.
The stone you see below the bird is the cut-out laterite rock. This stone is found only on western ghats and west coast on India, as far as I know. Occurs in some parts elsewhere on the globe too. Most of the habitat here is defined by these rocks. These cut-out stones are used in construction of houses in its native range and also transported to few places elsewhere where these rocks don't occur naturally. We rarely see mud bricks used for construction in its native range. So there is a demand to quarry these here like there is demand for granite on outskirts of Bengaluru and other rocky regions.
But what does the bird know about it? It seemed busy hunting insects in the grass patch which was not yet touched for quarrying. We never know whether if the bird visited the spot frequently to these spot every year? But next year it would need to search a new patch as most of this hilly region will be quarried out. Birds and animals adapt to changing condition as much as they can. But how much we can avoid such habitat destruction for our greed?
Common names: Pied Wheatear
Scientific name: Oenanthe pleschanka
Gender: Male
Place: Mangalore, Karnataka, India
Date: February 21, 2021
File name: IMG_2894.enhanced.cropped.upload.JPG
Pied Wheatear (Male)
© Harshith J.V.
An uncommon vagrant to the region. 2nd record for the district. Earlier sighted on October 2019 as far as I remember and was a female.
Thanks to Prashantha Krishna M C for exploring this patch newly on Sankranti day(Jan 14). This was on last day the bird was sighted. As per eBird Mahim Bhat sighted it last, later in the evening.
Few people came from far off places to see this bird. Maybe because of pandemic, only few twitchers turned up comparatively. Bird is regular in some parts of Ladakh and Himalayas. Yet, I heard, it's not a easy bird to sight over there too. Another winter migrant in those region known has Variable Wheatear, like its name, assumes the plumage similar to this bird and so some had missed sighting it there too.
Felt lucky to sight such rare vagrant bird in my hometown only. Had seen it 4 times in the span of one month I visited the place. Felt too bad for birders who had missed at the end of February when they were in town for Pelagic.
The stone you see below the bird is the cut-out laterite rock. This stone is found only on western ghats and west coast on India, as far as I know. Occurs in some parts elsewhere on the globe too. Most of the habitat here is defined by these rocks. These cut-out stones are used in construction of houses in its native range and also transported to few places elsewhere where these rocks don't occur naturally. We rarely see mud bricks used for construction in its native range. So there is a demand to quarry these here like there is demand for granite on outskirts of Bengaluru and other rocky regions.
But what does the bird know about it? It seemed busy hunting insects in the grass patch which was not yet touched for quarrying. We never know whether if the bird visited the spot frequently to these spot every year? But next year it would need to search a new patch as most of this hilly region will be quarried out. Birds and animals adapt to changing condition as much as they can. But how much we can avoid such habitat destruction for our greed?
Common names: Pied Wheatear
Scientific name: Oenanthe pleschanka
Gender: Male
Place: Mangalore, Karnataka, India
Date: February 21, 2021
File name: IMG_2894.enhanced.cropped.upload.JPG