Rescued from Andheri, this is the first documented proof of the nocturnal bird visiting Maharashtra; paper on it has been published in Indian Bird journal
The Eurasian scops owl winters in Mediterranean to sub-Saharan Africa and migrates to its breeding ground stretching from south-east Europe to west and central Asia. Pic/Yogesh Patel
An Eurasian scops owl visited Mumbai in 2015, the first such sighting in the city in 90 years, according to a research paper by a group of naturalists, biologists and rescuers. The paper has been published in Indian Birds, an ornithology journal.
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Six years ago on November 28, a team of rescuers from SARRP NGO comprising Kaushal Dubey, Prabhu Swami and Yogesh Patel had rescued an owl from Mahakali, Andheri East.
“The owl looked different by its small size and appearance. The best way was to document the bird by capturing all possible images and release it. Later, when I checked historical records and key characters of the bird, it was found to be an Eurasian scops owl,” said Patel, a naturalist, wildlife photographer and rescuer.
The nocturnal species is a small bird that winters in Mediterranean to sub-Saharan Africa and migrates to its breeding ground that stretches from south-east Europe to west and central Asia.
Explaining the research, Patel said, “In the handbook written by Dr Salim Ali, Eurasian scops owl is considered a vagrant to Mumbai and the bird was first collected back in September 1891 followed by October 1925 with no recent records. It was almost 90 years later that the bird was documented in Mumbai. Not to jump to any conclusion, we decided to wait at least for 5 years and see if the bird is recorded again before writing a scientific note on it.”
Patel apart, Shreya Sahu, Swapnil Gosavi, Prabhu Swami and Kaushal Dubey worked on the research note that has concluded that this is the first well-documented photographic record of the owl from Maharashtra.
Patel said it was tough to differentiate the bird from its similar-looking cousins like the Indian, Oriental and Pallid scops owls that are widely spotted in the city. The team then focused on featuring key identification characters of the bird and misidentified records from Maharashtra.
“We may miss upon important records like this if we do not document things well,” said Patel.
Sahu is a naturalist and zoology lecturer, while Gosavi is a marine biologist and has worked extensively on marine invertebrates. Swami and Dubey are naturalists and wildlife rescuers.
28
Day in November 2015 that the owl was rescued
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