Persian wheatear sighted in Kashmir
Srinagar, Dec 30: The bird watchers and enthusiasts have sighted and photographed for the first time the red tailed wheatear also known as Persian wheatear or Afghan wheatear (Oenanthe chrysopygia), from Kashmir.
Persian wheatear or Afghan wheatear (Oenanthe chrysopygia) is a small passerine bird breeding in mountainous areas of south-west and central Asia. Its breeding range extends from north east Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan eastwards through Iran to Afghanistan, southern Tajikistan and western Pakistan. It migrates south to winter in the Arabian Peninsula, Eritrea, southern parts of Iraq and Iran, Pakistan and north-west India. There has been one specimen of the species from Kashmir in the American museum of natural history.
It is for the first time that the bird has been photographed from Kashmir valley.
Three Kashmiri local birders from the birding club “Birds of Kashmir “ namely Sheikh Riyaz , Ansar Ahmad and Irfan Jeelani photographed it from the picturesque Zabarwan mountains of Srinagar, thus making it the first photographic record from the Valley.