Bhubaneswar: Leucistic Temnick’s stint, a rare bird, was spotted at Mangalajodi wetland in Khurda district on Monday.
Bird guide Madhu Behera spotted the bird at Baliayori Nullah while taking some tourists on a boat ride and a resident bird of Mangalajodi and sent few photos of the bird to former honorary wildlife warden of Khurda, Subhendu Mallik.
Mallik described the bird as Leucistic Temnick Stint and said it was the first time in Odisha that a bird had been seen to have such a leucistic mutation and the second to be seen in India.
In Chhattisgarh, a Leucistic Temnick stint bird was spotted in 2020, but its head was plain brown in colour and had a small amount of white on its body. So most of the colours of the honey spotted bird are completely white.
Notably, last year Madhu Behera had spotted Leucistic Common Moorhen, a rare coloured bird, in March. He had also spotted a white throat western reef-heron at Mangalajodi in April 2020.
