KARWAR: A few days ago, a rare bird, which was last sighted in the state around four decades ago, was spotted in the backwaters of the Tungabhadra in Vijayanagara district.The Indian Skimmer — an avian species with only a couple of thousand birds still left in the wild — was spotted by Ankasamudra-based birder Vijay Ittigi, who captured it when he zoomed his camera at the sand banks to photograph river terns.
“I wanted to photograph river terns on the sand banks, which were with the waders. It was then that I noticed something yellow-orange in colour, which I dismissed as a packet of waste pan masala thrown by some villagers. But a closer look revealed what I seeing — it was a skimmer,” Ittigi told TNIE.
A thrilled Ittigi contacted bird expert Dr Subramanya in Bengaluru and informed him about the sighting. The latter, who checked the records, said that the earlier sighting of the skimmer was in the mid-1970s. “The last sighting was near Karwar. This apart, there were no sightings,” informed Ittigi.He said that they were three individuals, but refused to disclose the exact location where they were spotted on the Tungabhadra backwaters.
The skimmer is usually found near the Chambal river in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. There was no record of its sightings deep South, however, there have been instances where they were sighted at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. These birds prefer sand banks, which are found near the Tungabhadra river. According to experts, skimmers are categorised as ‘near threatened’ by the International Union of Conservative Network (IUCN).