Ortolan Bunting spotted in M'luru

A Mangaluru-based businessman and birder, Vivek Nayak, has shot the ‘first photograph’ of Ortolan Bunting in India.

Nayak is also a member of the Coastal Bird Watchers Network.

Nayak said that he spotted the bird at Kenjar, on the outskirts of Mangaluru, on November 18 at about 4.15 pm. This small bird is about 16-cm long and weighs just 20–25 gram. The bird’s breeding ground stretches from Mongolia to Europe and migrates to Africa via Middle East.

“The bird was drinking water on a marshy field when I spotted it,” said Nayak. After Nayak shared the spotting of the bird and its photograph on social media, some birders commented that it was the first photography record of an Ortolan Bunting in India.

“I was not aware that it was a rare bird. I found the bird drinking water and captured it on my lense. Ornithologists and experts from E-bird.org have confirmed that this is the first confirmed photograph of the bird from India,” he said.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species has placed Ortolan bunting in the “Least Concern” category.