The Banni Vacationers!

I first saw the Grey Hypocolius in a date palm grove outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during one of my visits as a consultant to the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD) in the late 1980s.

As it was my 'lifer' so I gave special attention to the bird, forgetting the discussion that we were having with Saudi and British ornithologists on the Houbara bustard.

Fast forward to the 21st century. My former colleagues of BNHS, Jugal Kishor Tiwari, had established his own tourism business in Moti Virani, close to the famous Banni grasslands of Kachch (Kutch), and Grey Hypocolius was one of his USP (unique selling point). I had visited Kachch and Banni since early 1980s in search of the Great Indian Bustard and Lesser Florican, not the Grey Hypocolius. It was Jugal who encouraged me to look at this beauty that visits us during winter. One look at it and Jugal's enthusiasm seeped into me.

In Saudi I saw it on small hybrid date palms but in Banni I saw it on Salvadora. In Banni the Grey Hypocolius seems to have close association with Salvadora as the bird feeds on the small berries of this large bush. I am sure, it must be feeding on other items also but in Banni we always see it on Salvador bushes and Acacia trees.

Grey Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) is the sole member of the genus Hypocolius and it is placed in a family of its own, Hypocoliidae. This makes it taxonomically important. If we lose the species-the sole representative of the Family will be lost forever. Fortunately, IUCN and BirdLife International consider it 'Least Concern', meaning there is no immediate threat to the species. It breeds in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan, and winters in the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan and India. Everywhere it is thinly distributed and never found in large numbers, except when it arrives in its winter quarters. It prefers arid and semi-arid areas, mainly vegetated by Zizyphus, Acicia, Salvadora, and Tamarix.