Pied Thrush spotted for first time in Telangana

Manoj Chandramouli was on a birding trip along with his friend Narendar on October 1 to Umamaheshwaram Temple near Rangapur in Nagarkurnool district when he chanced upon the rarely sighted bird.

Sangareddy: A birder from Kukatpally in Hyderabad has sighted a female Pied Thrush, a rarely seen bird, in the Nallamala Forest in Telangana. The pied thrush (Geokichla wardii) is said to have never been sighted before in Telangana.

Manoj Chandramouli was on a birding trip along with his friend Narendar on October 1 to Umamaheshwaram Temple near Rangapur in Nagarkurnool district when he chanced upon the rarely sighted bird.

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Speaking to Telangana Today, Chandramouli said there was not much bird movement on the day since the area had witnessed some rain. As he had sighted some birds behind the temple during a visit a year ago, Chandramouli said he was scouting for bird movement underneath a tree. When he saw a bird foraging on leaf litter, he could not identify it immediately since he had never seen such a bird though he had photographed more than 300 birds in Telangana over the last three years.

However, he managed to take a couple of pictures of an olive brown and speckled bird. He then took the help of senior birder Sriram Reddy to identify it as a Pied Thrush. Sriram Reddy, the first Telugu birder to photograph more than 1,000 birds in India, told Telangana Today that the Pied Thrush would breed in the Himalayas during summer. It would travel down the Himayalas to the hilly terrains in Sri Lanka to avoid the plummeting temperatures in the north. He said the bird was also spotted in hilly terrains in Karnataka.

Several birders have termed the Pied Thrush as a passage migrant to South India. The bird was sighted in the Nilgiri Hills and Palani Hills a few times, but never in Telangana. Since the winter has begun in India, Sriram Reddy said it could be on its way to Sri Lanka.

Chandramouli, a mechanical engineering graduate, had started his career as a wedding photographer. Simultaneously, he also pursued his passion for bird photography since 2019.

During the past three years, he photographed over 300 bird species in different parts of Telangana. However, the birder said he would keep the Pied Thrush’s picture as a priced possession because it would keep his name in the history of birding identification in the State.