Rustic bunting spotted in NCR for the first time

The rustic bunting is known to breed across northern Palearctic regions, typically in wet coniferous woodlands.

Birders spotted a rare species, the rustic bunting (emberiza rustica) at Najafgarh Jheel on the Delhi-Gurugram border on Friday morning, marking the first time the passerine bird, which is also elusive across India, was spotted in the national capital region (NCR).

Experts called the sighting a rare phenomenon (Ram Kumar Rawat)

Local birding guide in the area, Ram Kumar Rawat, spotted the bird perched on a juliflora bush at around 9 am, during a routine visit.

“The bird, bigger than a sparrow and unfamiliar in appearance, piqued my curiosity,” Rawat said. He took photos and then shared them with fellow birding enthusiasts Akshit Dua and Yatin Verma. The trio carefully studied the bird and returned to the same area again at around 11:30 am — once again spotting it.

“We were able to clearly observe the bird for around 30 minutes. This helped confirm the bird as the rustic bunting, a species never recorded across NCR,” Verma told HT.

The rustic bunting is known to breed across northern Palearctic regions, typically in wet coniferous woodlands. It migrates to southeast Asia and parts of East Asia, including Japan, Korea, and eastern China, during the winter months. There are only a handful of records of it being seen across India – predominantly in the northeast and across the Himalayan belt.

Ashwin Viswanathan, from Bird Count India, called it a rare foray down south from the species’ typical winter range.

“Weather conditions, particularly severe cold may have pushed it down from its usual wintering path. This year seems to be particularly unusual, where a number of birds have been pushed down south from their original flight paths, notably this bunting and a hawfinch which has been sighted at Jim Corbett recently. The Hawfinch had never been reported previously from India except from northwestern Kashmir. In south India too, a number of birds have been pushed further considerably down south too so this is emerging as an unusual pattern this year,” he said.

According to eBird, a portal where birders upload photographs of bird sightings across the world, there bunting was sighted in Ladakh in March 2023 and March 2024. A recent sighting was also made in Arunachal Pradesh in March 2025.

In March 2022, the bunting was sighted in Kashmir. Months later, in November 2022, it was spotted in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kangan area — the fifth record for India and the second consecutive one for the region.

The bird is recognised by its distinctive black head, with a reddish breast band in males and reddish flank streaks in females.

In the latest 2025 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List update, the status of the rustic bunting has been reclassified from ‘vulnerable’ to ‘near threatened’ because of the species’ decline somewhat slowing down in the last decade.

Sohail Madan, a birder and Director at WildTales Foundation said this sighting – considered extremely rare for the region, highlights the importance of the Najafgarh Jheel and other ecological networks in dense and rapidly evolving urban landscapes. “It highlights the importance of conserving urban green spaces that sustain these incredible journeys.”

Veteran birder Suryaprakash said, “It is an extremely rare and fabulous record for NCR. The bird exhibits altitudinal migration and to the best of my knowledge, it is likely the first record for Delhi NCR within a 100 sq km range. The bird breeds in the northern latitudes of the Palaearctic regions.”