Rare long-billed dowitcher sighted in Sonepat

Suresh Sharma, a veteran birder from Sonepat, spotted the long-billed dowitcher on Friday afternoon in a paddy field.

A rare sighting of a long-billed dowitcher at Mohammedabad village in Sonepat has triggered excitement among birders in Delhi-NCR, with experts saying this is the first sighting of the bird in the region since it was last seen at the Sultanpur National Park in 2013.

Experts said this is the first sighting of the bird in the region since it was last seen at the Sultanpur National Park in 2013. (Photo: Suresh Sharma/ HT)

Suresh Sharma, a veteran birder from Sonepat, spotted the long-billed dowitcher on Friday afternoon in a paddy field.

“I saw the bird and took a photograph, realising that it didn’t look like any of the other birds in the marsh. I initially thought it was an Asian dowitcher, but closer scrutiny showed that it was actually a long-billed dowitcher,” Sharma said, adding that the bird was in its brighter, breeding plumage.

Breeding adults of the species are known to have orange undersides, with varying black and white stripes around their necks and sides.

Nikhil Devasar, a Delhi-based birder, explained that the long-billed dowitcher is a coastal bird that breeds in Central Asia before moving toward the tropics for the winter. “Shorelines are the bird’s natural habitat. The specimen Sharma spotted on Friday is likely a vagrant, as it is rarely seen in the plains. The last sighting in Delhi-NCR is from at least five or six years ago,” he said.