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Touch upon this taxable astir the Adyar Estuary, and 1 ends up successful an ouroboric, cyclical reasoning. The decision takes 1 to the starting constituent which feeds backmost into the aforesaid conclusion. It is simply a chicken-and-egg conundrum successful a birding contest.
The ODI onslaught complaint Abishek Sharma presently enjoys among batters, the Adyar Estuary enjoys among birding patches successful and astir Chennai successful presumption of hyperticks (sightings of unexpected feathers). Every birder worthy their brace of binoculars would person clocked successful galore hours astatine the Adyar Estuary. And that begets the conundrumical question: bash birders flock to the Adyar Esturay successful ample numbers due to the fact that it throws up avian surprises regularly oregon does the Adyar Estuary amass surprises due to the fact that birders flock to it successful ample numbers?
A Japanese sparrowhawk sighted and photographed by Madras Naturalists Society subordinate Ramanan R.V. astatine Adyar Estuary connected November 7, 2025. | Photo Credit: Ramanan R.V.
Forget its wide uncommon vertebrate stats. Over the past mates of months, the Adyar Estuary has hosted the Saunders tern, and past organised a precocious beverage with a pistillate red-headed bunting; and successful the week that went by, it had a dalliance with a Japanese sparrowhawk.
No mistyping there; a Japanese sparrowhawk indeed. The fortunate brace of eyes that peered done the binoculars belongs to Ramanan R.V., a Madras Naturalists Society (MNS) subordinate and a birder.
The brushwood with the Accipiter hawk happened successful the liminal portion astatine the Adyar Estuary wherever 1 breathes successful the aforesaid aerial that caresses the breached span and the peripheral parkland of the compound partition enclosing the Theosophical Society campus. This portion of the Estuary tin beryllium christened “unexpected birds check-in counter”, fixed the enviable aggregate of specified sightings it boasts.
Ramanan shares the details of the brushwood with The Hindu Downtown: “On the greeting of November 7, astir 6.30 a.m., determination was a commotion wrong the TS campus. Drongos were shouting, chasing immoderate vertebrate and past each of a abrupt this vertebrate came retired and it started chasing a greenish bee eater. It went connected 2 sorties trying to drawback the greenish bee eater, but was unsuccessful successful the attempt. Initially I was looking done the binoculars and I thought it was the accustomed Shikra. Then I noticed it was connected the leaner broadside and somewhat smaller than a Shikra. I past took my camera and captured a fewer shots of the raptor.”
He would instrumentality to the spot the adjacent 2 days, but the vertebrate did not amusement up.
Ramanan notes that photos of the vertebrate were “subsequently shared with the interior raptor involvement radical of the Madras Naturalists’ Society (MNS) for assistance with identification. The archetypal impression, fixed the location, was that of a Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus). However, a elaborate investigation of the photographs by the radical confirmed the bird’s individuality arsenic an immature Japanese sparrowhawk (Tachyspiza gularis).” Both are members of the household accipitridae.
Ramanan remarks that the photographs came nether the knitted brows of Gnanaskandan Kesavabharathi and Nirav Bhatt, luminaries connected raptors.
The Japanese sparrowhawk shuttles betwixt its breeding location successful East Asia, which inludes China, Japan, Korea and Siberia and its wintering location successful South-east Asia.
Ramanan elaborates, “Within the Indian subcontinent, its occurrence has been documented arsenic a migrant and wintertime visitant primarily, if not exclusively, successful the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This is the archetypal photographic show grounds of the taxon from mainland India. There are records from Walong and Namdapha successful Arunachal Pradesh. Without documentation, these records are conscionable claims. This is the archetypal clip we are documenting the sighting of a Japanese sparrowhawk successful mainland India and past showing it.”
Identification pointers
Here are selective points from the observations MNS subordinate and raptor adept Gnanaskanan Kesavabharathi made based connected the photos of the Japanese sparrowhawk Ramanan R.V. shared with him. These are recognition pointers that regularisation retired “lookalikes”.
Pointer one: “Lack of black-tipped outer primaries eliminates Chinese sparrowhawk.”
Pointer two: “Based connected the fig of black-barring successful the primaries (especially P8) and the fig of superior fingers, we tin destruct Eurasian sparrowhawk. Also mesial stripe was not disposable successful each representation angles. In archetypal review, I could not number primaries close with disposable images and mistook the spread successful outer superior arsenic missing primary. Eurasian sparrowhawk successful each ages person bully protruding P5 finger.”
Pointer three: “Based connected the indistinct mesial stripe, the fig of bands successful P8 (less than six successful Besra) and considering they are residents with not overmuch of movements recorded, we tin destruct Besra arsenic well.”
Building up the the recognition illustration with these pointers, Gnanaskandan Kesavabharathi concludes: “Leaving america the champion contender arsenic Japanese sparrowhawk, for which each these elimination pointers acceptable in.”
