Mahuva Bhavnagar Jamnagar District News Saurashtra Gujarat India

Black-necked stork sighted in Mahuva Gujarat India.

In a rare sighting, a black-necked stork was sighted for the second time in Ranigala area of Mahuva taluka. This sighting has risen.

Hope that there might be more storks in the area. Earlier, the rare bird was sighted in Velavadar of Bhavnagar district.

Forest officials said that the bird sighted twice in Bhavnagar is in fact never found in Nalsarovar and Thol, the two main bird sanctuaries of the Gujarat State. There have been reports of this bird breeding in Khijadia of Jamnagar district.

Bakul Trivedi, an avid ornithologist told TOI: "I have not come across sightings of black-necked stork in Nalsarovar and Thol. Of course there have been reports of breeding sites near Khijadia in Jamnagar District. However, the sighting in Ranigala means that there could be more birds in the area."

The black-necked stork also called 'Ephippiorhynchus Asiaticus’ is a resident breeder in southern Asia and Australia. It is around 130-150 cm tall with a 230 cm wing span. The head, neck, wing bar and tail are jet black, with the rest of the plumage white and an average weight of around 4.1 kg. Officials said the black-necked stork breeds in marshes and wetlands in tropical lowland areas. Also that they are extremely sensitive to environmental changes like water pollution, habitat destruction and human disruption around breeding sites.

It is evaluated as 'near threatened' on the 'IUCN red list of threatened and endangered species'.