A bird uncommon to the city seems to have found a new abode at Okhla Bird Sanctuary. Much to the delight of birdwatchers, a great crested grebe was recently spotted in the sanctuary after almost a decade.
Environmentalists on their daily stroll in the sanctuary were surprised at the rare sighting on Monday morning. “Just one great crested grebe seems to have flown its way to this wetland. We checked our records and this bird of the grebe species has never been spotted in the Capital or in this sanctuary for over 10 years now,” said environmentalist T.K. Roy. The bird was sighted with a flock of Eurasian coots.
The great crested grebe ( Podiceps cristatus ) is a diver that prefers to live in deeper wetlands, which the Okhla Bird Sanctuary is devoid of. It has a large and slender neck with a pinkish bill and a black crown. The black crown turns into a black crest during breeding plumage. Among five species of the grebe available in the Indian sub-continent, the smallest in size and the most common of the species is the little grebe. The great crested grebe spotted in the Okhla wetlands is the largest among its species.
“Although it is not threatened or a rare species, it certainly is uncommon in the Delhi region. The migratory bird is mostly found in Punjab’s Harike Wetland, Nangal Wildlife Sanctuary, Ropar Wetland and Himachal Pradesh’s Pong Dam Wetland. In general, it is found across Europe and Central Asia and in winter, it migrates to North Australia, East Asia (China, Korea, Japan, Russia) and South Asia (only in Northern India).
