Kathmandu, June 4:

Ornithologists have spotted a new species of bird at Koshi Tappu. With this, the number of bird species spotted in Nepal has risen to 863.

Sykes’s Nightjar, locally known as Apurbas Chaite Chara, was spotted at

Koshi Tappu, Suchit Basnet, chairman of the Nepal Rare Birds Committee (NRBC), said today.

“Ornithologists Badri Chaudhary, Anis Timalsina and Barry McCarthy identified the new bird as Sykes’s Nightjar Caprimulgus mahrattensis. The bird was first spotted on the banks of the Koshi river three kilometres south of the Koshi Barrage on January 1, 2008.

It took five months to have it verified by experts,” said Basnet.

“Now Nepal has five species of nightjars and all of the species are found in Koshi Tappu.”

The newly-spotted bird belongs to the Caprimulgidae family.

Nightjars are small to medium-sized birds with long, pointed wings and gaping mouth with long bristles that help catch insects in flight. Nightjars are nocturnal, with soft, owl-like patterned plumage.