IMPHAL, Dec 9 - A critically endangered migratory bird � the yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola) that feeds on grains � was sighted for the first time after 92 years in Manipur last month, RK Birjit Singh, the wildlife warden of Bishnupur district, said.
The bird was last sighted here last in 1926, as per British ornithologist Stuart Baker�s records. The bird locally known as Lam-Sendrang (local meaning wild sparrow) was sighted at the proposed area of Thinungei Bird Sanctuary in Bishnupur district on November 28 last, Singh told The Assam Tribune.
There were reports of sighting the species at Thongjaorok river that flows into the Loktak lake, in the first week of November last year but there was no photographic record, said Singh, who is also the State coordinator of the Indian Bird Conservation Network.
The size of a common sparrow, the yellow-breasted bunting breeds in north-eastern Europe and across northern Asia. It spends the winter in large flocks in wetlands or tall grasslands, preferring to roost near streams that irrigate rice-fields with tall grasses in south-east Asia, India and southern China.
Since 2004, it has been gradually upgraded to the status of Critically Endangered as per Birdlife International and International Union for Conservation of Nature Redlist due to rapid drop in its population sizes, addedSingh, a key member of Manipur-based Centre for Conservation of Nature & Cultivation of Science. This bird species is following in the footsteps of the Passenger Pigeon, which became extinct in 1914 due to hunting during its migratory route in Central Asia.
In India, the yellow-breasted bunting was last sighted in Sangli district of Maharashtra in 2014. There are also reports of its sighting at Wadhwana irrigation reservoir in Vadodara district in Gujarat in 2013, he added.