A rare species of Indian bird known as Indian Skimmer was seen 3 days ago at Menaar pound of Menaar village situated 45 kilometers away from Udaipur.  The species were seen when the Duty Conservator of Forest, Udaipur went to the water body with some representatives of an NGO.

Pratap Singh, Duty Conservator of Forests informed that during this season of migration, birds usually move from one place to another.  Three days back when he went to the water body at Menaar Village, he was surprised on seeing a Indian Skimmer as it is a rare species usually found near big rivers like Chambal, Ganga, etc specially in Northern India.

They are somewhat tern like but like other skimmers, have a short upper mandible and the longer lower mandible that is ploughed along the surface of water as the bird flies over the water to pick aquatic prey.

Pratap also added that it is a good sign for us as this bird use to migrate around such water bodies which are clean or less polluted ones; this was the first time that Indian Skimmer was seen in Udaipur division.

Further informing about the bird, Singh said that it is a hunter bird use to hunt fishes.  First it used to fly over the ponds and rivers and then it directly dives in the water to catch fish.  It got a long beak and short legs, which it uses to catch fish.

A local art gallery owner cum photographer, Amit Gupta said that he is a bird lover and he had clicked the photographs of thousands of birds in the last 15 years. Seeing the rare bird in this area, he was very happy and he has made an appeal to the people that everybody should keep the lakes and ponds clean so that more and more migrating birds can come to our city and can stay for a while.