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 photo
s 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.