Indian Thick-Knee or Indian Stone-curlew: Burhinus indicus

Indian Thick-knee Indian Stone-curlew
 (Burhinus indicus)



Indian Thick-knee Indian Stone-curlew
 (Burhinus indicus)

 

I clicked this bird back in April '13 - on 28th April, 2013 to be exact - at Buddha Jayanti Gardens located in the Central Ridge area of Delhi. The main reason I hadn't put it up was that I wasn't able to correctly identify the bird with my available resources. Perhaps I hadn't searched properly. Being an amateur I concede myself a few such shortcomings.

 

I have learnt since that this bird used to be classified as a sub-species of Eurasian Thick-knee or Eurasian Stone-curlew as Burhinus [oedicnemus or indicus]. ^[Avibase]

 

I have also learnt that this bird may have been elevated to an independent species recently as Indian Thick-Knee or Indian Stone-curlew (Burhinus indicus). Local name - Dhanchuwaa.

 

I quote - ".... it is smaller, darker and more heavily streaked, with larger bill, shorter tail, and longer tarsi. Bill has more black and shows more pronounced bars on wing-coverts (with broader pale panel). (Grimmett, Inskipp & Inskipp, 2012)" ^{[Allan Hopkins @ Flickr]}

 

Frustrated with wrong identifications by me using a few web tools, I decided to go about it using beak/toes/eyes and pattern an colour of feathers.

 

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm VR Lens