A vagrant at Adyar Estuary?

If a red-headed bunting had not shown up astatine the Adyar estuary connected October 29, 2025, the pursuing paragraph would person been unnecessary. And if cipher had seen the bird, that would person made the pursuing paragraph unnecessary arsenic well. It showed up and was seen; not conscionable seen, but documented connected national subject platforms. Hence this paragraph, seemingly connected a tangential course.

Here goes. At college, this writer sat successful the people of a German maestro who had a modular introductory remark for caller learners of the language. “Bad English is bully German.” That connection was meant to easiness the nerves of students inactive uncertain if signing up for German was a large idea. The maestro was evidently not wholly right, and not wholly incorrect either. English and German are cousins, akin successful operation and sharing linguistic roots. English words with forbears from aged English and aged German are aplenty. Bunting, the connection germane to this report, is successful that league.

Bunting is utilized successful astatine slightest 3 contexts; and the 1 involving birds is based connected 2 aged basal words, 1 from Old German and the different from Old English. Without getting bogged down successful etymological details (as that is not the intent of this report), betwixt them those 2 basal words lend the ideas of stout and colourful, which is what buntings are. They are stout; and the antheral birds among buntings (Emberiza) are colourful.

On October 29, astatine the Adyar estuary, a bunting was sighted by birder Kumaresan Chandrabose; arsenic it was a pistillate bunting, immoderate disorder astir its place prevailed.

Initially thought to beryllium a pistillate black-headed bunting, it was aboriginal re-identified arsenic red-headed bunting, said to a archetypal for Chennai. The corrected recognition came from members of 3 groups focussed connected vertebrate identification.

These 3 groups operating successful Facebook are: Birds of India; Ask IDs of Indian birds; and Identification of Birds from Indian Subcontinent. This vertebrate is apt a vagrant, having flown disconnected people from its regular wintering spot owed to cyclonic winds. Kumaresan explains: “I saw this pistillate red-headed bunting astatine the Adyar Estuary successful the greeting and evening of October 29; and it was not to beryllium recovered connected October 30; nor connected immoderate of the different consequent days.”