A bird watcher has sighted a Caspian gull at Kundapur in Udupi district.
M. Ranganath Bhat from Mangaluru, a member of Coastal Karnatka Bird Watchers Network, spotted this the bird in the backwaters of Kundapur on February 21. It had travelled about 4,600 km from Russia.
Mr. Bhat told The Hindu that the Caspian gull was ringed by Martens Sonke, ornithologist, on June 17, 2015, in Russia.
The yellow ring is visible in its leg. M. Shivashankar, a bird watcher from Karkala and a member of the Coastal Karnataka Bird Watchers Network, said that Caspian gull was a migratory bird. After it was ringed in Russia, this was its first sighting.
The bird watchers observed the migratory pattern of these migratory birds. These tracking of these birds were done by reputed institutions including British Trust of Ornithology. In India, it was being done by Bombay Natural History Society. Though satellite tracking of migratory birds could be done, it was quiet costly. The estuaries in Kundapur were hotspots for waders as they were rich in availability of food, he said.
It has travelled about 4,600 km from Russia, says bird watcher Ranganath Bhat
