Red-breasted merganser duck sighted in NCR for first time

Red-breasted merganser ducks are among the fastest ducks in flight, clocking speeds above 150 kilometres per hour. “It’s hard to say where exactly this bird’s migratory path has originated as their breeding range is very large,” said Sonu Dalal, who first spotted the duck on Sunday.

Birders in Haryana made a rare sighting, of a female red-breasted merganser duck, at a wetland in Mandothi village of Jhajjar district, located about 40 kilometres from Gurugram, on Sunday and Monday. The red-breasted merganser is a resident of Europe and North America that migrates to parts of the UK, China and Pakistan during winter.

This marks the first-ever appearance of the avian species in Haryana and Delhi-NCR. A previous sighting of the bird in India, in December 2016, at a Mumbai wetland, had sent ripples among country’s birding community . (Rakesh Ahlawat)

This marks the first-ever appearance of the avian species in Haryana and Delhi-NCR. A previous sighting of the bird in India, in December 2016, at a Mumbai wetland, had sent ripples among country’s birding community .

It was first spotted in Mandothi on the afternoon of December 6 by birder Sonu Dalal, a resident of the area, who initially mistook it for a common merganser duck, which is a resident of India’s hilly tracts and sometimes ventures to the Indo-Gangetic plain during winter.

However, Dighal-based birder Rakesh Ahlawat on Monday visited the site and confirmed that the bird was, in fact, a red-breasted merganser. “The bird is a vagrant which may have found its way to India while migrating. This species usually resides around freshwater lakes in Europe and North America and then winters in parts of the UK, China, and some coasts in south Pakistan. They travel in huge flocks, but this one was found on its own,” said Ahlawat.

The red-breasted merganser spotted in Jhajjar is a female specimen and was seen wading amid a group of waterfowl, including common teals and shovellers. Birders were able to identify her from her thin bill and slighter build, as compared to the more hefty common merganser.

Red-breasted merganser ducks are among the fastest ducks in flight, clocking speeds above 150 kilometres per hour. “It’s hard to say where exactly this bird’s migratory path has originated as their breeding range is very large,” said Sonu Dalal, who first spotted the duck on Sunday.

The first photographic record of the red-breasted merganser in India dates back to December 21, 2016, when it was spotted at a wetland in Maharashtra’s Vasai taluka, in Rajavalli village. At the time, birders from across the Mumbai region flocked to Vasai to catch a glimpse of the bird. Coincidentally, the species was also spotted around the same time at the Gajoldoba wetland near Siliguri in West Bengal.

“I remember the Mumbai sighting created quite a flutter. Even I had gone to Vasai to try and see the bird in January 2017, but wasn’t lucky enough,” said Pankaj Gupta of the Delhi Bird Foundation.

“I suspect people will want to have a look at this specimen since it is the first sighting in Haryana and NCR. Common merganser ducks are sometimes seen in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Kashmir, but this one is not a resident of India. It is clearly a vagrant that has deviated from its migratory path,” Gupta said.

Two earlier recordings of the red-breasted merganser also exist from West Bengal, in 1889 and 1961. However, these claims are not supported by photographic evidence.