World’s smallest gull spotted in Gurugram.

Tags: Environment

World’s smallest gull spotted in Gurugram.

Why in the news?

• Birders  made a rare, exciting sighting in Gurugram, spotting a little gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus) near Chandu-Budhera, with experts stating that this is possibly only thethird recorded sighting of the bird in the National Capital Region (NCR).

About little gull:

• The little gull, the world’s smallest gull species, is a shore bird that tends to migrate along the coasts of the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas.
• Birders said itsforay into India, that too as deep inland as NCR, is a rarity.

Important points:

• The species was spotted byAkshit Dua, when a group of birders set out to try and locate a slender-billed gull in the Chandu-Budhera area.
• The last known sighting of alittle gull in NCR was in 2014, at the Okhla bird sanctuary.
• Prior to that, it was spotted in 1992, so this could possibly be the third such sighting in the region.