Crested bunting, a rare bird endemic to the slopes of the Himalayas, has been spotted at Kanjikode, near here, by a team of bird watchers on Sunday during their weekly survey on the eastern parts of Palakkad district.
Arguably, this is the second spotting of the bird — with the scientific name Emberiza lathami — from South India.
No bird watcher or ornithologist had found it anywhere in South India so far except a few years ago on the suburbs of Bangalore. Other than Himalayas, they have been spotted occasionally in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. A birding party consisted of Praveen Velayudhan, Vivek Sudhakaran, and Deepak Muraleedharan had spotted the bird. Part of the Young Birders Club of Palakkad, they accidentally came across this small bird, which also known as ‘Yuvaraj’ in northern India.
After seeing images of the bird taken by the team, senior bird watchers such as Namassivayan Lakshmanan and Praveen Jayadevan had confirmed the bird as the Crested bunting. According to Mr. Lakshmanan, this is the 562th species of bird to be recorded in Kerala.
Birders of Palakkad
Started in 2015, Young Birders Club of Palakkad conducts bird-watching trips to places such as Walayar, Elival, and Kava on the Western Ghats.
High school student Arya Vinod is leading the club, mentored by Mr. Lakshmanan and Venugopalan Raghunathan. The club has 30 active members.
According to Mr. Lakshmanan, the natural habitat of the bird is subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland and it mainly feeds on seeds, fallen grains, and insects.
