Rare White-naped tit spotted in Gadag

A rare White-naped tit, a bird species with a small population across six Indian states, has been spotted in Gadag district. The discovery is part of a larger bird survey that identified 232 bird species, including 35 migratory ones, highlighting the area's biodiversity.

- RAGHOTTAM KOPPAR @Gadag

WHITE-naped tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is endemic to India where it is found in dry thorny scrub forests in two disjunct populations, in western India and southern India. This species is very patchily distributed and has been considered to be vulnerable to extinction especially because of the scarcity of suitable habitats, particularly nest cavities made by woodpeckers.

White-naped tit is a 12-13 cm medium-sized shy bird which prefers scrub thorny tree vegetation and it mainly feeds on insects and nectar on flowers of Caper berries (Chippuri/Kariuppi).

In India, White-naped tit is found in only some parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Eastern Ghats of Southern Andhra Pradesh, Northern Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Southern Karnataka.