MANGALURU: A group of avid birders sighted the rare red-breasted Merganser in Rajavali village of Vasai in Thane, Maharashtra on Wednesday. This is the first official record of the diving duck in India.
“This particular duck is extremely common in North America, Europe and Central Asia, but has never been seen in India before,” said Saurabh Sawant, an avian expert and an ‘ebird India’ volunteer. Shashank Dalvi, who is popular as ‘Birdman of India,’ has also confirmed that there are no earlier official reports of any sightings of this bird in India.
Bird watchers Dr Rajaneesh Ghadi and Dr Mangesh Prabhulkar confirmed the entry of the red-breasted Merganser in the country.
“When we caught the bird, we contacted Sachin Main, founder member of an NGO named “Nature and Environment Society of Thane” (NEST). We uploaded their shots on Facebook in ‘Ask ID for Indian birds’ group. Sachin also confirmed the identification of the bird as red-breasted Merganser,” they said.
“We were on our usual early morning bird walk in Vasai on Wednesday. At around 8:15 am when we were busy shooting territorial fight of little egrets, suddenly a small duck- sized bird landed in the same pond. It had lean, long reddish beak with greyish body and rust-coloured head. Initially we thought it to be great crested grebe. We immediately took few photographs and watched its behaviour. After resting for few minutes, however, it started dabbling and diving below water. It was silent throughout the observation period and was busy foraging for food,” the duo added.