THE LAST DANCE

Fewer than 1,000 Bengal floricans survive in Asia's shrinking floodplains

- DHRITIMAN DAS

The Bengal florican is a bustard mostly found in the seasonally inundated alluvial grasslands of the Gangetic-Brahmaputra plains of India and Nepal.

It is a medium-sized bird of these unique landscapes dominated by grasses such as Imperata cylindrica, Saccharum spontaneum, Saccharum bengalense and Desmostachya bipinnata.

Medium-sized it might be, but the Florican is nevertheless one of these grasslands' most striking denizens. The male bird shows black plumage, with a crest and elongated display feathers that are raised during courtship, and white wing patches become visible in flight. It is during courtship that the male becomes the cynosure of all eyes. It makes vertical leaps, wing movements and vocalisations. And it does all this along with other males, a behaviour known as “lekking”, to establish territories and attract females.