Last
spotted in Mumbai in 1939, this year, the Great Bittern made a long-awaited
comeback in the economic capital.
by Tanvi Patel January 11, 2019, 7:12 pm
Clean-up
drives help the environment and also restore the natural beauty lost to decades
of urban development.
In the
case of Mumbai, a clean-up drive has brought back a rare bird after 80 years!
Last
year, we brought you the story of how a beach clean-up resulted in
the endangered Olive Ridley Turtles nesting on a Mumbai beach. And this time,
nearly ten months later, a Great Bittern was spotted in Charkop, in Mumbai’s
Kandivali.
The Great
Bittern (or Eurasian bittern) belongs to the heron family of birds. These birds
prefer living in the thick vegetation surrounding water bodies because they
mainly feed on amphibians and small mammals, and reptiles such as crabs,
shrimps, molluscs, frogs and shrimps.
They are
also very shy, which is why you will spot them, if you are extremely lucky, in
reed beds.
The birds
are so shy that if they catch a glimpse of you, they are known to point their bills towards the sky and
freeze, hoping to be camouflaged by the reeds around them.
Last
spotted in Mumbai in 1939, this year, the Great Bittern made a long-awaited
comeback in the economic capital.
Although
there was one more report in 2017 about a spotting of the Bittern,
this sighting can only be a positive sign that it wasn’t a one-off chance of
the migratory bird’s return, but potentially, a recurring phenomenon.
Speaking
to The Times of India, Neeraj Chawla, a passionate birder,
said, “At around 8.15 am, we saw the Great Bittern come out to sit and preen in
the sun. We went on clicking pictures for almost half-an-hour as it sat there
undisturbed, cleaning its feathers. We also saw a Yellow Bittern; the latter is
not rare but a treat to watch, nevertheless.”
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