Two Lesser Floricans spotted near Haryana’s Sultanpur
NEWDELHI: At least two Lesser Floricans, an endangered and elusive species of bird from the bustard family, have been spotted near Sultanpur in Haryana, much to the delight of birders from Delhi and the National Capital Region.
This is not the first time a Lesser Florican has been seen in the region – one was spotted once a few years ago near a private university in Dadri, Greater Noida – but the sighting is still a rare one because there are so few left in the wild, less than 300 if the latest study on the species is to be believed. Lesser Floricans are elusive throughout the year and are spotted almost exclusively during the breeding season, which coincides with the monsoon months.
“The birds were spotted at least three times this month. While on one occasion a male was spotted, in the other two sightings females were spotted. We still don’t know whether it is the same female which was spotted twice or two separate female birds,” said Pankaj Gupta, a birder from the Delhi Bird Foundation. The birds were spotted in agricultural land near the Sultanpur National Park in Haryana. The park itself is closed (as it usually is) till the end of the monsoon.
As this is the breeding season, birders from the city are now waiting for the male bird to start its courtship dance in which the male jumps into the air and then come down, effecting a straight jump, all the while emitting a characteristic call. This makes the birds conspicuous and easy to spot even amidst lush greenery.
“We still don’t know whether they have come here for breeding. The nearest breeding ground is a place around 50 km from Ajmer in Rajasthan. May be they are on their way to Ajmer. But we are all hoping to see the mating dance, if at all it performs,” said Vishal Monakar, a birder who photographed a female Lesser Florican on Saturday.
The courtship dance usually takes place only on a day when there are no rains, but which is cloudy.
Experts said that loss of habitat and use of pesticides is driving these beautiful bustards to extinction.
The fact that they have been spotted before, in so-called commons in Greater Noida, and are now being seen on similar commons and agricultural fields near Gurugram indicates that there could still be hope, but only if the bird’s habitat is protected. In Greater Noida, for instance, it hasn’t been.
“Lesser floricans are among the most understudied birds. We have no idea where these birds go when they are not breeding. They have been spotted in Nepal, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, even in Goa. Yet their numbers are fast falling,” said Gupta.
BIRD AT RISK OF BECOMING EXTINCT:REPORT
BHOPAL: Once found in abundance, the Lesser Florican (sypheotides indicus), the smallest bustard , is in real danger of becoming extinct from the India with just 264 of them enumerated in the four states where they are usually found, down from 3,500 in 2000, according to a comprehensive survey of their main habitats by the forest departments of these states, a government run institute and two non-government organisations.
The bird is endemic to India. Lesser Florican is one of the four bustard species of India, all of which are threatened under the International Union for the Conversation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the world’s biggest inventory of the conservation status of biological species.
Lesser Floricans are a bird watcher’s delight and during their mating season, which starts with the onset of the monsoon, the male acquires spectacular breeding plumage and jumps as high as two meters in the air, emitting a frog-like rattle which can be heard from 300-400 meters away, to attract the female.
Observations have shown that the male can jump 500-600 times a day during the height of the breeding season, said the report of the survey conducted between July-september 2017 by Dehradun based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) under its endangered species recovery programme along with Bombay Natural History Society (BHNS), Corbett Foundation and the forest departments of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
The 120-page report published by WII on June 29 has estimated that going by a “conservative estimate” there are only 264 birds left in the country, an 80% decline in their population since 2000 when around 3,500 birds were estimated to be in these four states, which together account for more than 90% of Lesser Floricans in the country.