A new species of bird has been found in Mustang.
A bird of ‘European roller‘ species has been found in Kekighang of Lomanthang village municipality-5.
Rishi Baral, chief conservation officer of the Jomsom-based Area Conservation Office of the Annapurna Conservation Project (ACAP), said the bird was found in Lomanthang for the first time in Nepal.
“The ornithologists Dr. Hemsagar Baral and Som Jis have confirmed that the bird was photographed from an altitude of 3,781 meters by Ram Bahadur Gurung, an employee of ECAP Lomanthang, on August 29,” said Baral, a conservation officer. The bird has proved to be new to Nepal.
Gurung said that the bird was found three days after it was photographed in Kekighang. “I first took a picture of the bird on the wall of a field about 800 meters east of Lomanthang at 1.11 pm,” he said. “The second time I was sitting on a poplar tree at 10 am.”
After seeing the new bird, conservation officer Baral sent an ornithologist for further confirmation. Some of the European rollers, larger than sparrows, have gray wings, blue legs, and gray and white feathers on the neck and head. Earlier, 518 species of birds were found in the ECAP comprising Kaski, Lamjung, Manang, Mustang, and Myagdi districts.
Gurung, who works in the health sector, is also interested in birds.
