In Sirsa, twitchers cheer India’s 1st sighting of rare Desert Finch

GURUGRAM: A lone winged beauty amongst a flock of birds has given the city’s bird-watchers the goosebumps.
Around 8am on Sunday, birders in Sirsa witnessed something unusual — a Desert Finch. The vagrant, alien to India, had migrated to the country that is miles off its high-altitude habitats.
Birder couple — Dr Sanjeev Goyal and Shafina — managed to capture the first photographic record in India of the rare species.
Sanjeev and Shafina, who are members of Delhi Bird Society, have been collecting data on birds in the region for the past seven years and have participated in several bird races. Many birders have confirmed that there have been no previous photographs of this bird in India.
“We do not have any concrete proof of sighting of this bird in the country before this day. It is usually found in high altitudes and open areas. We do not have any reasons for this bird visiting this part of the world. We have to see if it continues to visit the country and after a few more sightings, we can analyse its pattern,” said Pankaj Gupta, a birder from Delhi Bird Society.
Meanwhile, Goyal said the Desert Finch that he spotted on Sunday was a female, brown and standing isolated from other nearby birds. The male and female of this species have different traits, he added. While the male birds have a black cover that extends from the eyes to the bill, the females do not have any such mark, he pointed out.
“We were out on one of our regular birding trips on Sunday at Nathusari Chopta in Sirsa when I noticed a bird standing alone in a water-locked area. It was looking very different from the rest of the birds. Usually, this bird is found in groups and there are many records of this species in Eurasia,” said Goyal. The Desert Finch is usually found in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a Himalayan Bluetail (orange flanked bush robin) was also spotted by a birder, Preetpal, in Mangar Bani on Saturday. This is also the first sighting in Delhi-NCR. This species is usually spotted in the foothills and forest areas, as per Delhi Bird Society birds.