As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Monday, 16 April 2018

Rare bird sighted in Coimbatore



COIMBATORE, APRIL 03, 2018 12:42 IST

This is the first recorded sighting in Tamil Nadu

The members of Environment Conservation Group, a Coimbatore-based NGO, sighted a rare bird species at Achankulam near Sulur on Monday.

According to R. Mohammed Saleem, head of the NGO, the team sighted a bird that looked similar to Blue-tailed bee-eater. But it had a prominent blue-cheek and the blue tail of the Blue-tailed bee-eater was missing. They later identified it as blue-cheeked bee-eater (Merops persicus). The bird was rarely sighted in South India and theirs was the first recorded sighting in the State, he said.

Normally, bee-eaters are found in semi-desert, steppe, dunes, saline pans, thorn woodland and sandy slopes with small gulleys, ravines, quarries, pits and embankments.

The bird breeds mainly in deserts near bodies of water fringed with reeds and tamarisks. During the non-breeding season it inhabits a wide variety of greener habitats including savannah, broad river valleys, woods, lake shores, swamps, ponds, and dams. It has a life span of 6.2 years.


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